Ten of the Best Books aboutWitches


Imogen Russell Williams chooses 10


Witches recur perennially in the pages of children’s literature, whether as fairy-tale villains, or, more recently, as aspirational figures, especially in junior fantasy. The conception of witches as malevolent females, seeking to devour or destroy children by the use of evil magic, is increasingly balanced by the idea of witch as an appealing career option – many children dream of developing and honing supernatural powers, or of attending a magical school. (Most of the fictional witches I have chosen are benign, or at least ambiguous, oscillating back and forth over the line dividing good from evil – there is one old-school baddie, however, in Lewis’ White Witch.)


The Little Broomstick


Mary Stewart, Hodder Children’s Books, 978-1444940190, £6.99 pbk


Best known for romantic mystery novels and the Merlin trilogy, Mary Stewart is also the author of three superb books for children, of which The Little Broomstick (recently adapted into an animated film, Mary and the Witch’s Flower) is the best. Plain, lonely Mary Smith, doomed to a dreary autumnal sojourn with Great Aunt Charlotte, discovers her inherent power when a small black cat leads her, via a magic flower and the titular broomstick,


to Endor College, a witches’ school where Mary poses as a pupil. But formidable headmistress Madam Mumblechook, and the sinister transformations she oversees, present grave peril…Stewart’s assured writing is atmospheric and crackling with menace, emphasised by chapter-head line-drawings from the inimitable Shirley Hughes.


The Worst Witch, and sequels Jill Murphy, Puffin, various, £5.99 pbk


This amazingly long-lived series has only just reached its culmination – the final book, First Prize for the Worst Witch, came out in 2018, forty-four years after Mildred Hubble’s first appearance at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. Hapless, clumsy, well-intentioned Mildred, perpetual target of Miss Hardbroom’s sarcasm and star pupil Ethel’s ire, will


surely be making the wrong potion, waking up frog-shaped, and defending her misfit tabby cat to the delight of generations to come. Murphy’s own illustrations perfectly evoke a sense of chilly stone, itchy uniform and perpetually untied bootlaces.


Imogen Russell Williams is a journalist and editorial consultant specialising in children’s literature and YA.


Witch Week


Diana Wynne Jones, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 978-0007267699, £6.99 pbk


In a rogue alternate splinter of reality, witchcraft is illegal. At Larwood House, a school intended to suppress magic rather than to train it, many pupils have had parents burned as witches. The students are constantly scrutinised for manifestations of prohibited power – so it’s a serious matter when Mr Crossley receives


an ominous note, reading ‘Someone in this class is a witch’… An


impression of drab, pervasive danger, acutely observed boarding- school dynamics, and an appearance by the dashing Chrestomanci, nine-lifed enchanter and arbiter of the multiverse’s magic, make for a witch story elegantly balanced between real and imagined worlds..


Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and sequels


J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, various editions


While Rowling may be indebted to those who first built magical schools in fiction, none of her predecessors did so on quite such a comprehensive scale, or offered so vivid and detailed a fantastical refuge. Imagining life as a young witch or wizard at Hogwarts – choosing which wand, which broom,


which subjects, which Quidditch position, and, most of all, which House – continues to enthral new readers, eagerly awaiting the arrival of an owl with their Hogwarts admission letter. There are many ways to be a witch in Rowling’s world – clever (Hermione Granger), eccentric (Luna Lovegood), or even old-school screeching evil hag (Bellatrix Lestrange). In the huge illustrated editions, Jim Kay’s gorgeous painterly work transports the reader still deeper into the world of the school (his green-clad oil painting of a severe Minerva McGonagall suggests a witch of piercing acumen, and in full control of her considerable power.)


6 Books for Keeps No.236 May 2019


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