REVIEW: Witch Born

WITCH BORN

by Nicholas Bowling

Pages: 368

Publisher: Chicken House

Publication Date: November 2nd 2017

Received From: Chicken House

It's 1577. Queen Elizabeth I has imprisoned scheming Mary Queen of Scots, and Alyce's mother is burned at the stake for witchcraft. Alyce kills the witchfinder and flees to London - but the chase isn't over yet. As she discovers her own dark magic, powerful political forces are on her trail. She can't help but wonder: why is she so important? Soon she finds herself deep in a secret battle between rival queens, the fate of England resting on her shoulders...

Witch Born is the story of Alyce, a 16th Century girl forced out of her family home when her mother is brutally murdered in front of her by the witchfinder. Fleeing the only home she has ever known Alyce runs to London in hopes of finding help but instead is greeted by the cold harsh gates of Bedlam. As the story unfolds Alyce is forced to find her way in an unknown and scary London with what feels like an army of witchfinders, ghosts and myths chasing her. But with the help of a young aspiring actor, Solomon, Alyce starts to discover secrets she ever knew existed and a royal plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

This is one of those books that had me hooked from the opening chapter. Personally, I have a fascination with this period in history and Nicholas Bowling's take on Elizabethan London is something not to be missed. He mixes the fantasy of witches and magic with the hardships of a Monarchy under constant threat, creating a London filled with treachery and possibility - just waiting for our young protagonist to take centre stage.

Even though Witch Born is set in a VERY different time to a lot of YA fiction Alyce's journey is the epitome of the coming of age story. Forced to leave everything she has ever know, learning to live on her own, discovering who she really is... what more could you ask for? Alyce as a courage that I really admired, and even when terrified she finds a way to do what she has to do. She grows through out the story and by the very last page I was dying to know what she was going to do next.

Overall, Witch Born was one of those books I just didn't want to put down. It is also one of those books that I can't say ANYTHING about without giving away too much. However, I can say that Nicholas Bowling's magical story telling brings to life a tale of family, friendship and betrayals that will have your jaw hitting the floor. So if you haven't read this one yet I highly recommend it.

**I received this book as an ARC from Chicken House to read & review. This is a 100% honest review.**

GUEST POST: Nicholas Bowling

Today I have something rather awesome for you all. Today I have the lovely Nicholas Bowling, author of Witch Born talking about why it is he writes historical fiction. I hope you all enjoy this guest post, it had me from the Bowling says KFC. 

Why Historical Fantasy?

Aged thirteen – so, old enough to know better – I wrote a history essay in which I tried to claim that the Bayeux Tapestry was a fake, because I had spotted a KFC family bucket among the legs of the charging Norman cavalry. To this day, I don’t know what it was that I had actually seen. I still somehow managed to get 14/20, thanks to the patience and indulgence – or perhaps genuine credence? – of good old Mr Neal.

Let the record show: I am not a historian. It’s perhaps a surprise, then, that I have found myself writing historical fiction, or, more accurately, historical fantasy.

Or perhaps it’s not (a surprise). Other, more articulate, more intelligent writers have put it better than me (if you haven’t listened to Hilary Mantel’s Reith Lectures, go do it, now), but suffice to say, history and fiction are not such strange bedfellows. It’s no coincidence that “history” is just “story” with a couple of extra letters, and I’ve always liked, and been quite good at, telling stories – particularly those at the stranger and more imaginative end of the spectrum (c.f. William the Conqueror and his bucket of chicken).

But why historical fantasy, as opposed to “pure” fantasy, or magic realism, or any other type of story for that matter?

In the Early and Pre-Modern Eras, most of the things that we would term “the stuff of fantasy” were vividly, frighteningly real. For us, “fantasy” books and films are thought experiments in which we can play out not just stories around us, but the stories we tell ourselves, in our heads – our dreams and fears and desires. Pre-enlightenment, though, these fears and phantoms could not be rationally explained away as the product of the subconscious or the imagination. The great thing about historical fantasy is that it can take those monsters conjured by the Early or Pre-Modern mind and make them as real as they seemed to the imaginer.

And this is not just bringing to life the superstitions of the uneducated. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, magic, science and religion had not yet been comfortably categorised, and there was a good deal of handwringing (and occasionally bloodshed) when definitions were unclear, or misunderstood. A man like Doctor John Dee, who appears as a character in Witchborn, is a perfect embodiment of this. He was an alchemist, magician, astrologer, who claimed he spoke with both the dead and the angels; but he was also a talented mathematician, navigator, and counsellor to the Queen herself.

The prevalence and acceptance of the fantastical in a particular historical period also presents a functional solution to a writer of fantasy fiction. I am realising, as I write this, that this will probably just going to come across as laziness on my part. But here goes. World-building is hard to do right, and so often the choices made in creating a fictional world seem essentially arbitrary. (What do I call this town? Blenwyth? Blythven? Blythvenville? Belyhythhhg? Why? Because it sounds a bit Welsh, and hence sounds a bit like Tolkien? Oh.)

The restrictions of a ready-made historical period, you find, are not restrictions at all, but in fact the opposite: they free you to explore human drama in a world already replete with mystery and otherness. It’s a little like writing poetry – the strictures of rhyme and metre, the rules of the poem, create something far more interesting than anything in sprawling free-verse.

Besides, if there are no rules, you don’t get the fun of breaking them.

Find out more at www.chickenhousebooks.com and @thenickbowling

WITCH BORN

by Nicholas Bowling

Pages: 368

Publisher: Chicken House

Publication Date: November 2nd 2017

It's 1577. Queen Elizabeth I has imprisoned scheming Mary Queen of Scots, and Alyce's mother is burned at the stake for witchcraft. Alyce kills the witchfinder and flees to London - but the chase isn't over yet. As she discovers her own dark magic, powerful political forces are on her trail. She can't help but wonder: why is she so important? Soon she finds herself deep in a secret battle between rival queens, the fate of England resting on her shoulders...

Nicholas Bowling

Nick Bowling is an author, stand-up comic, musician and Latin teacher from London. He graduated from Oxford University in 2007 with a BA in Classics and English, and again in 2010 with a Masters in Greek and Latin Language and Literature, before moving to his first teaching job at Trinity School, Croydon. While writing Witchborn, he has also performed a solo show at the Edinburgh festival, and has co-written, recorded and released an album and two EPs with soul-folk singer Mary Erskine, Me For Queen. Witchborn is his debut novel.