Age 11+

Nell, who lives in a 17th-century village in the West Country, has healing powers because she was conceived on a May morning. Her grandmother is the local wise woman and midwife, and she and Nell have innocent dealings with fairies, while impudent piskies moon at passing inhabitants for fun. Into this playful setting Hearn introduces a puritanical minister who frowns on frivolity. He has two daughters whose lives are constrained by their father’s severity: one is plain and backward, the other is beautiful and wayward. When the lovely daughter tries to lay the blame for her own transgression on a bewitchment, Nell and her grandmother suffer terrible consequences from the frenzied folly of a superstitious community. This novel is a remarkable balancing act: it uses modern idiom without losing historical credibility; it interweaves realism and fantasy without sacrificing emotional power and introduces real people (Charles II and witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins) without undermining the invented characters. Ingeniously structured, with compelling plot twists, it is engrossing and immediate; Hearn has the skill of a conjuror and her novel casts a spell.

THE MERRYBEGOT by Julie Hearn

(OUP £4.99)

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