As with Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, The Virago Book of Witches will become a perennial favourite. Witches are once again in the ascendancy! Reissued with a new introduction by the editor
Beware the women who are called witches, or those who claim the name for themselves...
Banshees - a howling night-witch and harbinger of death; She-devils - Lilith and her daughters; or Bitches - Hecate, whose chariot is drawn by dogs.
Alluring women, enchantresses, seekers of revenge, wise old women and badly-behaved girls. As Shahrukh Husain says: ' witches... womanhood in all its complexity'
Over fifty stories of crones and nixies, shape shifters and beauties are here, including the loving fox witch of Japan; Italy's Witch-Bea-Witch; Scotland's Goodwife of Laggan; Biddy Earl and the terrifying Kali and Baba Yaga who comes in many forms to haunt, entice, possess, transform and challenge.
From every corner of the globe, with tom-foolery, fun, strife and victory, these folklore and legends celebrate women who step out of line.
Shahrukh Husain, born and brought up in Pakistan, has studied myth and folklore from around the world for many years. She is the editor of The Virago Book of Witches, author of several children's books and a play for children, and has worked on film scripts for Merchant Ivory and Disney, A practising psychotherapist, she is married with two children and lives in London.