folk-remedies

A ninth-century remedy from Bald’s Leechbook instructs the healer to place a live raven’s eyes on the neck to cure swelling in the human eye. Behind this unsettling prescription lies a symbolic medical tradition rooted in folklore, sympathetic healing, and a worldview where body and spirit were never separate.

In 1657, two women were hanged for witchcraft in Goudhurst — the same village where I was later cast out for writing about women like them. This is the true story behind my novel, Cunning Woman — a tale rooted in history, blood, and my own exile.

To read this book is to enter the arcane world of Anglo-Saxon medicine, where a drink of ale containing egg and sheep's dung was the cure..