The Witch and the Priest - Hilda Lewis - Penguin Horror

The Witch and the Priest by Hilda Lewis / 336-page paperback published in 2025 in the Penguin Horror series / ISBN 9781405985994

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PENGUIN HORROR: A celebration of the very best literary horror, a series of terrifying novels and tales that for generations have thrilled, captivated and kept readers wide awake at night.

Joan Flower is long dead when she first appears to Samuel Fleming, a priest plagued by doubts about her and her daughters’ execution for witchcraft. Did he do all he could to rescue them from damnation? From beyond the grave, Joan reveals to him the spine-chilling tale of her seduction by Satan, her temptation of her own daughters to the Devil’s coven, her murderous sacrifices, and her final rejection by both Heaven and Hell – yet Samuel still strives for a way to redeem her sins. Over their terrifying conversations, Samuel learns the way of the witches’ sabbath and comes to the dark realisation that Joan’s soul may not be the only one in need of saving. . .

Based on real seventeenth-century witch trials in Lincolnshire, The Witch and the Priest is a masterpiece of historical atmosphere and psychological horror.

‘Strange terror fills this tale of seventeenth-century witchcraft … horrific and written with much skill.’ - Daily Telegraph

Hilda Lewis (1896-1974), a prolific author of historical fiction, ranked The Witch and the Priest (1956), based on the real-life case of the Witches of Belvoir, as her own favourite among her many novels. In creating this masterpiece of frightening historical fiction, Lewis conducted extensive research on the case and on early works of witchcraft and demonology, resulting in a novel that is both blood-chillingly readable and historically accurate.