The Last Witch on the Knock
In Scotland, 21-year-old Thomasin leaves the city to spend the summer with her Aunt Nancy in a small town in the Highlands. Nancy lives in a flat with her daughter, Nina, and her wolfhound, Finn. The town is remarkable only for straw-filled figures dressed in old clothes which line the streets each summer; Thomasin finds the one outside Nancy’s flat sinister. Just outside the town is a small hill called ‘The Knock’. On a trip to the reservoir, Thomasin gets into difficulties and is saved by the figure she dislikes which floats towards her. But while she is clinging to it, she feels that it is actively supporting her and she is poked in the side, causing an injury which will not heal.
In 1715, Kate is labouring at the Big House where she is raped by the laird. When she rejects his further advances, he has her declared a witch. Kate and Thomasin become entwined, and Kate sees Thomasin as her chance to escape. But Thomasin wants to escape her.
This is an intriguing story based on the legend of one of the last women killed for witchcraft and weaving together the 18th and 21st centuries. It combines long forgotten folk tales with the ordinariness of modern small-town life. It explores toxic relationships between Kate and the laird, and the villagers and the supposed witch, as well as between Thomasin and her controlling boyfriend, her non-caring father and her empty friendships.
It will appeal to anyone interested in the social history of the 18th-century poor and comparing it to the lives of ‘ordinary’ people living in 21st-century small-town Scotland. The central characters: Thomasin, Nancy and Nina but also Kate, her mother and brother, are sympathetically portrayed, while the less likeable characters remain believable. This is a good story well told. I recommend it.
