{"product_id":"midden-witch","title":"Midden Witch","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShortlisted for the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.thebookseller.com\/news\/laurel-prize-for-nature-poetry-longlist-revealed\"\u003eLaurel Prize 2026\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn her thrilling fourth collection, \u003cem\u003eMidden Witch\u003c\/em\u003e, Fiona Benson enters the world of familiars, fables and hedge-magic and focuses on the persistent superstition – the fear and false knowledge – that was witchcraft. Telling tales of imagined transformations and spell-casting, these poems present a litany of artists, dreamers and outcasts and a study of their ostracisation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe poet looks at how gifted, sometimes troubled, individuals – generally healers, artists, prodigies and almost always women – became scapegoats, victims of societal paranoia and persecution, and were hounded for centuries, often to a gratuitously violent public execution. In Midden Witch, these women speak back to us with dark humour, insight and real herbal knowledge. Reckoning with middle age, marginalisation, perimenopause and a steady, unstoppable vanishing, this troubled codex of remedies, spells and stories speaks to human fear in the face of the unknown, and a drive to protect our loved ones that transcends all rational thought.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt play in the language of archival accounts of witchcraft, this is a dark, eclectic spell-book that witnesses the end-days of magic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Benson is one of the finest English poets writing today\", Blake Morrison\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Fiona Benson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54608715383123,"sku":"9781787335240","price":13.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781787335240.jpg?v=1786962615","url":"https:\/\/www.vanitaspress.co.uk\/products\/midden-witch","provider":"Vanitas Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}