{"product_id":"ruin-of-all-witches","title":"Ruin Of All Witches","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*THE \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER*\u003cbr\u003e*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e*A \u003ci\u003eTIMES\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eAND\u003ci\u003e BBC HISTORY\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK OF THE YEAR*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A bona fide historical classic'' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Simply one of the best history books I have ever read'' \u003ci\u003eBBC History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the frontier town of Springfield in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails and property vanishes. People suffer fits and are plagued by strange visions and dreams. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of spite, distrust and denunciation. The finger of suspicion falls on a young couple struggling to make a home and feed their children: Hugh Parsons the irascible brickmaker and his troubled wife, Mary. It will be their downfall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ruin of All Witches\u003c\/i\u003e tells the dark, real-life folktale of witch-hunting in a remote Massachusetts plantation. These were the turbulent beginnings of colonial America, when English settlers'' dreams of love and liberty, of founding a ''city on a hill'', gave way to paranoia and terror, enmity and rage. Drawing on uniquely rich, previously neglected source material, Malcolm Gaskill brings to life a New World existence steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in curses and enchantments, and precariously balanced between life and death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough the gripping micro-history of a family tragedy, we glimpse an entire society caught in agonized transition between supernatural obsessions and the age of enlightenment. We see, in short, the birth of the modern world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Gaskill tells this deeply tragic story with immense empathy and compassion, as well as historical depth'' \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''As compelling as a campfire story ... Gaskill brings this sinister past vividly to life'' Erica Wagner,\u003ci\u003e Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller, November 2022\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57313065468286,"sku":"NW9780141991481","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141991481.jpg?v=1778511816","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/ruin-of-all-witches","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}