The Merrybegot
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | Julie Hearn |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Honors | |
| This is the story of Nell who lives with her grandmother, the local cunning woman and healer, in a west country village in the seventeenth century. When one of the minister's daughters falls pregnant she and her sister attempt to conceal it by accusing Nell of putting a curse on them. The witchfinder general, Matthew Hopkins, is called in and in an atmosphere of fear, the local villagers turn nasty and Nell's grandmother falls victim to their hatred. Nell is all alone, and in great danger . . . | |
Published in the US as The Minister's Daughter
Conceived on May Morning, Nell is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife... and, some say, a witch.
Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured... to those who think they know her. But she is hiding a secret - a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light.
A merrybegot and a minister's daughter - two girls who could not have less in common. Yet their fates collide when Grace and her younger sister, Patience, are suddenly spitting pins, struck with fits, and speaking in fevered tongues. The minister is convinced his daughters are the victims of witchcraft. And all signs point to Nell as the source of the trouble...
Set during the tumultuous era of the English Civil War, The Minister's Daughter is a spellbinding page-turner - stunning historical fiction that captures the superstition, passion, madness, and magic of a vanished age.
