Nottingham Pagan Book Club: Ashes and Stones by Allyson Shaw

Five Leaves hosts the Nottingham Pagan Book Club, a reading group for those interested in Pagan literature, both modern and classical. The group is open to anyone who would like to discuss books from a pagan perspective, be they long-time pagans or just curious about exploring pagan spirituality.

Ashes and Stones is a moving and personal journey, along rugged coasts and through remote villages and modern cities, in search of the traces of those accused of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.

Allyson Shaw untangles the myth of witchcraft and gives voice to those erased by it. Her elegant and lucid prose weaves threads of history and feminist reclamation, alongside beautiful travel, nature and memoir writing, to create a vibrant memorial. This is the untold story of the witches’ monuments of Scotland and the women’s lives they mark. Ashes and Stones is a trove of folklore linking the lives of modern women to the horrors of the past, and it is record of resilience and a call to choose and remember our ancestors.

Shaw is a speaker, writer, and multimedia artist, presenting her work at literary festivals and events across Britain. Her writing on folklore and history has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Monster Verse: Poems Human and Inhuman in the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series, Rituals and Declarations and The Bottle Imp. Her speculative fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Fireside Quarterly and Tales from Fiddler’s Green, among others. She spent her formative years in California and now lives in Orkney.

For this book group only, you don’t have to read the book cover to cover if you don’t want to, or you don’t have time. Likewise, feel free to come with a book full of page flags and notes all the way through if that’s your style.

The book,  is available from Five Leaves Bookshop for 15% off but feel free to get it elsewhere (including the library) if you’d prefer. To access the discount, email your order to bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk or pop by the shop.