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Ashes and Stones

A Scottish Journey in Search of Witches and Witness

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Ashes and Stones

By: Allyson Shaw
Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
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About this listen

'It's summer. I stand where perhaps Ellen stood, in this ground thick with new thistle and long grass. She would have ken this coast in all weathers: in the summer when it was as gentle as a lake and in the winter, with the high winds and stinging salt spray.'

A beautifully written journey through Scottish history and across the Scottish landscape in search of the women accused and killed during the witch hunts.

Ashes and Stones is a moving and personal journey, along rugged coasts and through remote villages and modern cities, in search of the traces of those accused of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland. We visit modern memorials, roadside shrines and standing stones, and roam among forests and hedge mazes, folk lore and political fantasies. From fairy hills to forgotten caves, we explore a spellbound landscape.

Allyson Shaw untangles the myth of witchcraft and gives voice to those erased by it. Her elegant and lucid prose weaves threads of history and feminist reclamation, alongside beautiful travel, nature and memoir writing, to create a vibrant memorial. This is the untold story of the witches' monuments of Scotland and the women's lives they mark. Ashes and Stones is a trove of folklore linking the lives of modern women to the horrors of the past, and it is record of resilience and a call to choose and remember our ancestors.

©2023 Allyson Shaw (P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Cultural & Regional Great Britain Women Witchcraft Highlander Scotland Magic Users Fantasy

Critic Reviews

"Allyson Shaw has built a monument in words to the thousands persecuted as witches in Scotland. A fascinating and necessary book." (Peter Ross)

"In Ashes and Stone Shaw has written a compelling and intimate pilgrimage across Scotland as she visits the sites of notorious witch trials to connect with and comment on the memorials left there to the murdered people who perished through greed, misogyny, and superstition... The book is a fascinating exploration of the search for personal identity, the ever-present dangers of religious and political extremism, and how we examine and process the murderous injustices from our past." (Helen Callaghan)

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