title: The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations
author:  Diane Purkiss 
description: "Ms. Purkiss..has interesting things to say about contemporary witchcraft and some striking if idiosyncratic comments about earlier (mainly fifteenth-and sixteenth century) material...Her [Purkiss's] analysis of the contemporary witchcraft movement, like her analysis of their myths, though generally critical, is occasionally and almost reluctantly admiring.."<br />-" The New York Review of Books, October 1997 <br />"The author has an impressive ... grasp of literary, philosophical, psychological, and ethnological sources and their relevance to women."<br />-"Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences <br />
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  PRAISE FOR _THE CROWN_
  
  
  ![image](../images/00019.jpeg)
  
  
  “Nancy Bilyeau’s polished, inventive debut has all the ingredients of the best
  historical fiction: a broad cast of characters, well-imagined settings, and
  vivid storytelling. . . . In Joanna Stafford, Bilyeau has given us a memorable
  character who is prepared to risk her life to save what she most values, while
  Stafford’s desperate search for a lost religious relic will satisfy even the
  most ardent mystery fans.”
  
  
  — **DEBORAH HARKNESS, AUTHOR OF** **_A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES_**
  
  
  “An amazing first novel, filled with excitement, intrigue, espionage, and set
  against the background of one of the bloodiest periods of British history: the
  schism between Church and State. It’s an action-packed tale of one nun’s
  dangerous quest to discover the secrets of a relic that dates back centuries.”
  
  
  — **KATHERINE NEVILLE, AUTHOR OF** **_THE EIGHT_**
  
  
  “The events of the period come to 