Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic - Couverture souple

Stanmore, Tabitha

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1847927327 ISBN 13 : 9781847927323

Editeur : Bodley Head, 2024

Synopsis

Cunning Folk transports us to a time when magic was used to solve life’s day-to-day problems – as well as some of deadly importance.

‘A brilliant book, written with wit and vigour’ MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin of All Witches

‘Absolutely fascinating’ IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

It’s 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they’ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you’re facing trial. Maybe you’re looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do? In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might well have been cunning folk: practitioners of magic who were a common, even essential part of daily life, at a time when the supernatural was surprisingly mundane.

Charming, thought-provoking and based on original research, Cunning Folk is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world by an expert historian, as well as a commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.

‘I adore Cunning Folk. A truly fascinating and human book’ Ruth Goodman, author of How To Be a Tudor

‘Packed with vivid historical anecdotes, this is an intriguing insight into the magical lives of past people and the history of our own superstitions today’ Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft

‘Fascinating . . . opens a window into another world’ Tracy Borman, author of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I

‘Full of such magical tips and colourful vignettes . . . crackles with incident’ Kate Maltby, Financial Times

‘Spirited and richly detailed’ New York Times

**WINNER OF THE KATHARINE BRIGGS AWARD 2024**

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Tabitha Stanmore is a social historian
of magic and witchcraft at the University of
Exeter. She is part of the Leverhulme-funded
Seven County Witch-Hunt Project, and her
doctoral thesis was published as Love Spells
and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England
from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern
Period. She has featured on Radio 3’s Free
Thinking and BBC 4’s Plague Fiction, and her
writing has been published in the Conversation.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

‘A brilliant book, written with wit and vigour’ MALCOLM GASKILL
‘Absolutely fascinating’ IAN MORTIMER

Tabitha Stanmore transports us to a time when magic was used to navigate life's challenges and solve problems of both trivial and deadly importance.

It’s 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they’ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you’re facing trial. Maybe you’re looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do?

In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might have been cunning folk: practitioners of ‘service magic’. Neither feared (like witches), nor venerated (like saints), these people were essential: a ubiquitous presence at a time when the supernatural was surprisingly mundane and a cherished everyday resource.

We meet lovelorn widows, selfless healers and renegade monks; we listen in on Queen Elizabeth I’s astrology readings and track treasure hunters who try to keep peace with fairies. Much like us, premodern people lived in bewildering times, buffeted by forces beyond their control – and their faith in magic has much to teach us about how we accommodate ourselves to the irrational in our allegedly enlightened lives today.

Charming in every sense of the word, Cunning Folk is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world and a thought-provoking commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bodley Head
• Date d'édition: 2024
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1847927327
• ISBN 13: 9781847927323
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 288
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible