New book looks at horrific history of the Scottish witch trials (2025)

Could women be tried as witches in modern day Scotland? One book sets to find out.

Could women ever be burned at the stake as witches in a modern day Scotland?

Well that is exactly what one new book, How to Kill a Witch: A Guide to Surviving the Patriarchy, sets to find out.

Authors Claire Madison and Zoe Venditozzi, known for their podcast The Witches of Scotland, look at the history of the Scottish witch trials, and why hysteria seemed to take grip of Scotland.

For over 150-years, in the 1500’s to 1700’s, more than 4000 women were accused of being witches. These women faced terrible fates, with many being hung, pressed and even burned in barrels full of tar and spikes.

Claire and Zoe take an incredible, in-depth look at just why it happened - and the entire grizzly process these women suffered through; from the reasons women were accused - including petty neighbour squabbles, to cheating spouses - and the torture they were subject to in order to secure confessions.

With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world.

With testimony from a small army of experts, including Marion Gibson, Malcolm Gaskill and Liv Helene Willumsen, plus long forgotten confessions, witness accounts, and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill a Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raise the serious question - could it ever happen again?

In the times of Trump and the rise of the far right in nations across the globe, the work is a timely reminder of how often history repeats itself - and how many people involved were 'just following orders'.

Leading human rights lawyer Claire Mitchell, KC, and writer Zoe Venditozzi previously created the Witches of Scotland campaign.

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The aim was to shine a light on the historic injustice of the witch trials.

As a result, on International Women's Day, 2022, the First Minister of Scotland issued a formal state apology - the first time in 300 years there had been any formal recognition of those who were most wrongly accused.

Through their tireless campaigning, regular public appearances, and highly entertaining podcast, also called ‘The Witches of Scotland’, this pair of 'quarrelsome dames' are currently working to build a lasting memorial to the accused women, and campaign to draw attention to the continued persecution of women as witches around the world today.

In 2022, Claire and Zoe were made Doctors of Laws by the University of Dundee in recognition of their work.

How to Kill a Witch: A Guide to Surviving the Patriarchy comes out on May 15