The Witch of Withyford ~ Gratiana Chanter

I have three book announcements to make today, and I'm going to split them up into three separate posts; otherwise this will be a huge one (not that size matters, or so I'm told, but, well... you'll get tired part way through and give up reading... or the will to live). So, here's announcement no.1:

On 4 May, Nezu Press will release a new hardback edition of The Witch of Withyford by Gratiana Chanter, with a long biographical essay by me. Now, as you know, I'm always excited about working on a new book, but this one—in fact, all of the titles I'm announcing today—are of particular interest to me because the writers were North Devon lasses. In fact, just like me, they called Ilfracombe home. Gratiana was the daughter of John Mill Chanter, the vicar of Ilfracombe for fifty-one years.

Anyway, here are the details:

Gratiana Chanter’s novella The Witch of Withyford: A Story of Exmoor, containing her own illustrations, was first published by J. M. Dent & Co. in May 1896. In it, Nance Darvel, a gruesome woman who lives in a hovel, is intent on punishing a slight by destroying the life of the local squire. It is an uncanny tale of witchcraft, superstition, child-theft and revenge, set in Gratiana’s beloved Devonshire and told by an elderly servant of Withyford Grange. This current edition includes three other tales: ‘The Appledore Boy’, ‘The Shadowy Hillside’, and ‘The Forty Thieves of Exmoor’. It also includes all of the author’s illustrations for the first edition and a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, ‘Gratiana Chanter: A Typical Daughter of Devon’.

I'm definitely going to be posting more about this writer in the days/weeks to come, but for now I'll just say that you can pre-order it directly from Nezu Press (Publisher shop: Click here). Or you can do so from the usual online retailers; the book will be showing up in all the usual places soon.

Nezu Press, 4 May 2024.
978-1-7393921-8-5.
Case laminate hardback, 170 pages.