Cunning Folk : Life in the Era of Practical Magic

Author: Stanmore, Tabitha

European history

Published on 29 May 2025 by Vintage Publishing (Vintage) in the United Kingdom.

Cunning Folk transports us to a time when magic was used to solve life?s day-to-day problems ? as well as some of deadly importance.

?A brilliant book, written with wit and vigour? MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin of All Witches?Absolutely fascinating? IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time-Traveller?s Guide to Medieval EnglandIt?s 1600 and you?ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they?ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you?re facing trial. Maybe you?re looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do? In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might well have been cunning folk: practitioners of magic who were a common, even essential part of daily life, at a time when the supernatural was surprisingly mundane.

Charming, thought-provoking and based on original research, Cunning Folk is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world by an expert historian, as well as a commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.

?I adore Cunning Folk. A truly fascinating and human book? Ruth Goodman, author of How To Be a Tudor?Packed with vivid historical anecdotes, this is an intriguing insight into the magical lives of past people and the history of our own superstitions today? Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft?Fascinating . . . opens a window into another world? Tracy Borman, author of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I?Full of such magical tips and colourful vignettes . . . crackles with incident? Kate Maltby, Financial Times?Spirited and richly detailed? New York Times