Matthew Hopkins, the self-termed 'witchfinder general' who executed over 100 victims during the Civil War, was clearly insane but for two years traded on the social unrest and religious hypocrisy of the era. Bassett portrays Hopkins as a coward and bully with delusions of grandeur, claiming to be a lawyer and a gentleman, who tortured elderly, infirm, poor and uneducated women into confessions of witchcraft and heresy on the accusations of spiteful neighbours. The abuse of Elizabeth Clarke, one of Hopkins' first victims in Manningtree, Essex, really disturbed me, far more so than the same account in The Manningtree Witches by A K Blakemore!

Bassett alternates between Hopkins' witch trials and the progress of the Civil War, which provides a realistic and violent historical setting but didn't hold my interest. He also pits one of Cromwell's soldiers, Captain Ralph Margery, against Hopkins but over the 'defilement' of Margery's (fictional) fiancée rather than the injustice of the witchfinder's actions, which I found to be a rather weak subplot. Bassett also draws on the satisfying rumour that Hopkins was subject to his own 'swimming test' and then hanged, when in fact he likely succumbed to tuberculosis and died at home in Manningtree.

Hopkins' character can be summed up by the accusation against 'false' witchfinders he delivers: 'That is why it is a dangerous business to employ so-called witchfinders who are concerned only with filling their purses, who are likely to torture and lie to provide evidence — and are thus no more than hired murderers, even though their mouths are filled with the scriptures and sanctimonious proverbs.' Hopkins profited from his brief reign of terror throughout Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, charging twenty shillings for 'cleansing' towns and villages of defenceless but ill-favoured women - also writing a pamphlet on his exploits titled 'A Discovery of Witches' - and 'retired' without any form of reprisal, so Bassett at least delivers a fictional sense of justice for poor women like Elizabeth Clarke. ( )

I received this book via net galley in exchange for an honest review.
1643. England is at war with itself.

While bitter battles rage between King and Parliament, local magistrates have more power, and less accountability, than ever before.

Taking advantage of the tense atmosphere and lax prosecution procedures, Matthew Hopkins, an insignificant lawyer and self-appointed Witchfinder General, travels across East Anglia accusing the aged, the confused and the poor of satanic crimes against their neighbours.

With every innocent death, his purse grows heavier, as he satisfies his lust for power.

But his dealings with one particular young woman make him a powerful enemy in the form of Ralph Margery – a captain in Cromwell’s army who is determined to put a stop to Hopkins’ reign of terror.

I enjoyed this book unbelievable but true that this is Fiction based on Fact.
The poor women and simple folk the weak & infirm all preyed upon whilst the country at war divided and tearing itself apart highly recommend this is historical fiction well written and at its best! ( )

I don't normally read horror novels to "celebrate" Halloween. (I don't normally read horror novels, period.) So we'll just let Witchfinder General – which I find to my surprise was originally published in 1966, and inspired a film starring Vincent Price(!) – stand as my token horror for October, and for all the Octobers I have lived through up to now. It may just do for all the Octobers to come, as well.

From Wiki: "Upon its theatrical release throughout the spring and summer of 1968, the movie's gruesome content was met with disgust by several film critics in the UK, despite having been extensively censored by the British Board of Film Censors." Hollywood Citizen News referred to the film's "orgiastic sadism". From a poster for the American release, verbatim: "LEAVE THE CHILDREN HOME! … and if YOU are SQUEAMISH STAY HOME WITH THEM!!!!!!!" (
I think the production might have emphasized parts of the story and downplayed (or probably excised) others, but this story doesn't need the "Hollywood treatment" to make it horrific. Constantly confronted by ignorance and stupidity, lately I haven't been able to stop wondering how on earth the human race made it to the 21st century. It just doesn't make sense that a species capable of this much idiocy managed to even make it bipedal, much less to the moon (though the fact that the last time we were on the moon was forty years ago is relevant). This book … This just underlines what I've been saying. And highlights it. Puts it in italics. And 72 point font. With Word Art added. A line from The Mikado comes to mind: "Nobody's safe, for we care for none" – literally anyone could be accused of witchcraft, for any reason from genuine belief to jealousy or simple dislike to a desire on the accuser's part to curry favor… and once accused they would pretty much be on an irreversible course to torture and death. And literally anything the accused might say in her own defense was … worthless. The "evidence" in these witch trials is hair-raising. It would actually be funny if it hadn't been part and parcel of the torture, rape, and murder of hundreds of people, mostly women, mostly elderly or physically or mentally disabled. And if this book wasn't based on truth. Matthew Hopkins, Stearne, and the named victims in the book? Real. God help us (but not his God).

It's as if we decided today to seek out vampires, and began pulling from their homes anyone who was allergic to garlic. Or who was pale. Or around whose house someone once thought they saw a bat fly (though it was dark and they couldn't be sure, but they felt funny the next day, and the pint of Jack Daniels had nothing to do with that). I wish I was exaggerating.

I will always remember reading L.M. Montgomery's Anne books, viewed as the epitome of wholesomeness, and being shocked that the folk of Avonlea would have regarded ten-year-old me as an object of contempt, if not outright loathing, because I was Roman Catholic. Weirdly, this was my first experience of religious intolerance. I find this book, set toward the beginning of the strongest anti-Catholic sentiment, kind of remarkable in that we (the dread papists) aren't even remotely the evil-doers – we are the prey. I'd forgotten how brutal it all was. Gosh, we were capable of just anything – Heaven forbid part of the dossier against someone included Catholic leanings. I mean, I know full well that hideous things have been done by Catholics and in the name of Catholicism - just as hideous things have been done in the name of every other religion there is … but I'm really, really happy that the witch trials can't be pinned on Catholics. Just sayin'. Sir Andrew Aguecheek – "born" not so long before Hopkins – is not exactly a font of wisdom, but I begin to really understand the line: "O, if I thought [he was a Puritan], I’d beat him like a dog!"

This novel is well-written. It's very readable – except for the parts that are almost impossible to read. But if I had been more aware of what I was getting into I never would have requested it on Netgalley in the first place, or having requested it would have shirked it without a qualm. To follow this I am going to need something filled with sweetness and light and hope and … puppies … definitely puppies.
( )

A story based on the historical story of Matthew Hopkins the self-styled Witchfinder General. With some added details that are historically accurate, this is an interesting version of the story. It's scary and intense.

Filmed with Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins. ( )