Witches, both historical and contemporary, both real and suspected, are the powerful driving forces for three spellbinding novels. Michael J Malone’s chilling gothic thriller The Torments is the story of Annie Jackson, a woman blessed with a curse – unwanted voices that tell of imminent deaths. Kate Foster’s beguiling and poignant novel The King’s Witches harks back to 16th century Scotland and the witchcraft mania that has gripped the country and its newly-arrived queen. The body of a missing teenager is found with a poem inked on his back in Suzy Aspley’s exceptional debut Crow Moon, set in a fictional Scottish village. 

Chaired by Teddy Jamieson