The Manningtree Witches

'It does not matter what is true, or not true. All that matters is what is written down.' 

Essex, 1643. In the quiet town of Manningtree, most of the men have gone to fight in the Civil War. With food running out and boredom setting in, seventeen-year-old Rebecca West longs for something, anything to happen.

When a tragic incident involving a local boy coincides with the arrival of the mysterious Matthew Hopkins, the town is plunged into discord. As suspicion and fear take root, Rebecca finds her own girlhood weaponised against her – and is forced to make a devastating choice.

The Manningtree Witches is a thrilling and fierce exploration of fear, control and what happens when women's voices are silenced. A. K. Blakemore's novel was a Sunday Times Book of the Year, winner of the Desmond Elliot Prize and shortlisted for the Costa Debut and Ondaatje Prizes. This stage adaptation by Ava Pickett was first performed at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, in 2026, produced in association with Frantic Assembly, supported by Eleanor Lloyd Productions and directed by Natasha Rickman.


Genre: Historical

"This book is extraordinary first for the richness of the language, which is partly born from a remarkably sensitive use of 17th century English but is also brilliantly Blakemore's own. Her heroines are real, thinking people, sometimes petty and self-interested, sometimes courageous and generous, and often startlingly funny. She masterfully shows us a world where witchcraft feels absolutely real to real people, but where it can also be a cynical lie used to weaponize malice and misogyny--a phenomenon that feels frighteningly topical in the era of QAnon and Pizzagate. The Manningtree Witches is not just the best debut novel I've read in years, it's the best historical novel I've read since Wolf Hall." - Sandra Newman

"I loved this riveting, appalling, addictive debut. In The Manningtree Witches, Blakemore captures the shame of poverty and social neglect unforgettably, and the alluring threat of women left alone together, in a novel which vividly immerses the reader in the world of those who history has tried to render mute." - Megan Nolan

"A.K. Blakemore's debut is a riveting, unsettling story of menace, corruption, and muck, rendered in limber, evocative prose that delights and surprises at every turn. Its heroine wants too much, and too often, and the wrong thing--which is quite a bit more dangerous than usual, considering this is 17th century England and the Witchfinder General has just come to town. Based on actual events, but told in a deliciously brazen voice, this novel reads like Fleabag meets Hilary Mantel: bawdy, bewitching, weird, and wise. I loved every minute, and even when I was horrified, I didn't want to look away." - Emily Temple