{"product_id":"midden-witch","title":"Midden Witch","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe thrilling story of the healers, artists and prodigies once persecuted as witches - from the three-time T.S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e POETRY BOOK SOCIETY CHOICE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In her thrilling fourth collection, \u003ci\u003eMidden Witch\u003c\/i\u003e, Fiona Benson enters the world of familiars, fables and hedge-magic and focuses on the persistent superstition - the fear and false knowledge - that was witchcraft.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Telling tales of imagined transformations and spell-casting, these poems present a litany of artists, dreamers and outcasts and a study of their ostracisation. The poet looks at how gifted, sometimes troubled, individuals - generally healers, artists, prodigies and almost always women - became scapegoats, victims of societal paranoia and persecution, and were hounded for centuries, often to a gratuitously violent public execution.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eMidden Witch\u003c\/i\u003e, these women speak back to us with dark humour, insight and real herbal knowledge. Reckoning with middle age, marginalisation, perimenopause and a steady, unstoppable vanishing, this troubled codex of remedies, spells and stories speaks to human fear in the face of the unknown, and a drive to protect our loved ones that transcends all rational thought. At play in the language of archival accounts of witchcraft, this is a dark, eclectic spell-book that witnesses the end-days of magic.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'Benson is one of the finest English poets writing today' Blake Morrison\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'No one writes the way Fiona Benson does. No one is as raging, as fearless' Daisy Johnson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA new collection of Benson's wise and vivid work is a real occasion... exciting...fully inhabited and multi-faceted' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"Midden Witch","offer_id":44659299549381,"sku":null,"price":43.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/6679\/3413\/files\/978-1-78733-524-0.jpg?v=1744600433","url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/midden-witch","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}