In seventeenth-century Scotland, everyone knows the devil is real. Everyone knows that witches exist. Everyone knows that saying the wrong thing can get you hanged...When fourteen-year-old Maggie's grandmother is accused of witchcraft, Maggie has to run for her life. With English soldiers on the march, nowhere is safe - certainly not Ladymuir, where her uncle is determined to defy the king. And wherever Maggie goes, disaster follows...A gripping historical novel about a young girl's journey through the Killing Time.
The Witching Hour
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Elizabeth Laird has been nominated five times for the Carnegie Medal and has won many awards, including the Children's Book Award. She is the author of many highly acclaimed children's books. She and her husband divide their time between London and Edinburgh.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read,
By Lynette Ferreira (South Africa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Witching Hour (Paperback)
Maggie grows up as an orphan with her grandmother after the tragic death of her mother and father. Her grandmother is accused of being a witch and this leads to Maggie having to flee from the island of Brute where she has lived. She knows no other place and has never ventured further than six miles away from their cottage by the sea.
In Scotland she finds her uncle and she moves in with them. Here though they have their own troubles with the King wanting to dictate to which religion the Scottish people should abide with. She finds herself immersed in the world of the Covenanter until her uncle is arrested and she has to undergo the journey to safe him and bring him back home to his family. I found this book extra-ordinarily interesting. Although there is not really anything about witches, which I expected from the title, this book still held me captivated and taught me a lot about the beginnings of the religious struggles between the Catholic church and the Protestants. I love books set in old-England and this book was well told. I also enjoyed the Christian undertones in the book and how Maggie had to struggle with herself to understand why everybody thought religion was so important to give up everything else.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written,
This review is from: Witching Hour (Paperback)
I picked this book because I love reading anything and everything about witches and witch trials. Also it's set in 17th century Scotland which is just icing on the cake. The Witching Hour is not about witches or witch trials entirely though. It's about a girl called Maggie who lives on the Isle of Bute with her grandmother who is bitter and angry with life and all that fate has done to her. She can't help but turn all the hate on the neighbors and the people around her. When one of the new-born dies, his father accuses Maggie's grandmother of witchcraft and since most of the people don't have very high opinion of her, she is branded as a witch and burned. Maggie would have been burned too if not for Tam, a family friend.
Maggie manages to run away to her dead father's brother who lives with his family in Ladymuir. Although he welcomes Maggie in his house and family he has his own problems to deal with. It's the time when the King wants to replace God in the churches of Scotland and establish himself as the supreme leader. But many people, including her uncle's family, is opposed to it. They have their secret meetings and sermons. When the King's men arrest people from the town who have not been co-operating with the King, all hell breaks loose. Maggie has to leave her safe heaven and embark on a journey and put everything she has on risk. There are a lot of things I loved about this book. First and foremost is the setting. The author Elizabeth Laird describes the time and the place so beautifully that you can't help feel like you're actually there experiencing it all with Maggie. I loved the Island of Bute and loved traveling with Maggie across Scotland. It's as good as it gets where traveling via fiction is considered. I also loved Maggie and how she learned from the mistakes her grandmother made, and how even though she necessarily wasn't always righteous, she had a good and brave heart. I learned a lot of things about Scotland that I didn't know before and although I don't really understand all the religious details and intricacies, I had a good time getting immersed in the story of Maggie. It's a Young Adult book but it's also a book which adults can enjoy thoroughly. The Witching Hour goes way beyond a teenage girl's story. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the length. There were a few dry spots in it and I guess it would have worked best if the book was cut short by a few pages. But other than that I heartily recommend this book
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