Présentation de l'éditeur
A tale of witchcraft and retribution in fourteenth-century Yorkshire through the eyes of a penitent monk
Revue de presse
'As historical fiction goes, this book is a grubby little pearl. Edmund, a 14th-century monk, sets out to tell the story of a powerful Yorkshire witch called Sycorax as penance for the dirty fantasies that plague him from a colourful past. His first attempt to record testimonies from peasants who knew Sycorax are influenced by the amount he ends up drinking in a remote alehouse; third-party accounts he is later forced to rely on, such as the reflections of Brother Denys, a fellow monk almost expelled from the Abbey, are similarly enflamed. Denys's story of how the youthful Sycorax demonstrated her witch-like command over animals to a young man rapidly drifts to a series of details revealed in the confessional about Simon's "onanistic sins". Men tend to fare badly in Edmund's account. The bailiff and gaoler charged with extracting a confession of witchcraft from Sycorax when she is first arrested are keen to torture her. Those who later hunt her probably succumb to madness that's a product of their own imaginations, delusions of power and warped obsessions, rather than any spells Sycorax is thought to have cast. This is such an imaginative, entertaining novel. The myth of Sycorax concocted by Aspinall is completely believable (it's a name shared by Caliban's mother in The Tempest). As well as being a really spooky tale of madness and magic, with great period detail, it offers a clever satire on the hysteria that so often afflicts groups of men, but which less insightful writers usually attribute to women.' --Independent on Sunday
'Sycorax tells the story of a young peasant girl in medieval Yorkshire, who is accused of sorcery and brutally treated by the authorities. Her revenge as the witch Sycorax is documented by Edmund, a monk who still struggles with the legacy of his own lustful past and becomes entwined with lust, sorcery and accusations of witchcraft. After an uncertain start, Sycorax develops into a rambunctious satire on social hysteria, and an amusing portrait of one man's struggle between sex and God. The real heroine of the piece is the witch, who goes from a free-spirited younf girl to a shrieking,skeletal agent of Satan. Boisterous, lurid and well written, Sycorax comes recommended.' --Big Issue london
Biographie de l'auteur
John Brian Aspinall read History at Balliol College, Oxford. He taught literature in city comprehensive before becoming a full-time writer in 1990. He has had numerous poems published in magazines and has published two novels: Gringo Soup (2001) and Sparrow Hall (2003). He currently lives in France.
