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.

'Nightshade and wormwood grow wild in my garden. Borage and chamomile pop up in strange places — chamomile in particular forms clumps around

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..