Witches of Scotland - THE QUARRELSOME DAMES RETURN

00:00:00.960 I am Clare Mitchell, Doctor of Laws and King's Council.

00:00:04.080 And I am Zoe Vendetotsi, Doctor of Laws, Teacher and Writer.

00:00:07.760 On the 8th of March 2020, International Women's Day, we launched the Feminist Witches of Scotland campaign.

00:00:13.920 The Witchcraft Act, enforced between 1563 and 1736, saw thousands of people, mostly women,

00:00:22.080 accused and executed as witches in Scotland, in the country's biggest and most brutal miscarriage of justice.

00:00:28.880 Our campaign had three aims. To get a formal state apology for those accused of witchcraft,

00:00:34.640 to obtain a pardon for all those convicted and to get a national memorial to remember

00:00:39.360 those involved in the Witchcraft Act. On International Women's Day 2022, the first

00:00:45.040 of our aims was realised when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal state apology

00:00:49.600 to those accused as witches. The first formal state apology ever. We are currently working

00:00:54.400 with politicians to ensure there's legislation passed to pardon those accused as witches

00:00:58.960 to change their status from convicted witches to those who ought never to have been prosecuted

00:01:04.160 we continue our work to obtain a national monument so those who suffered will never be forgotten

00:01:09.120 join us as we speak to the experts on the witchcraft trials both here in scotland and further

00:01:13.760 abroad as we explore the history of women in scotland and continue the cultural conversation

00:01:18.800 of what it means to be a woman.

00:01:24.520 Hello and welcome to the Witches of Scotland podcast.

00:01:29.620 I'm Zoe Vendetotsi.

00:01:31.680 And I'm Claire Mitchell.

00:01:33.520 Now, our voices may not be very familiar to you anymore

00:01:36.420 because it's been so long since we've actually recorded any episodes of the podcast.

00:01:41.080 We're aware of that.

00:01:42.080 We would just like to go ahead of any accusations of laziness or ineptitude

00:01:46.300 by saying we've been incredibly busy.

00:01:48.260 have we not Claire? We have been incredibly busy Zoe the Quarrelsome Dames return I think the last

00:01:56.120 podcast you were promising people that we would definitely have one within the fortnight 1.00

00:02:00.560 and my definition of fortnight is quite eccentric

00:02:04.500 and is more like six months. Is this like interstellar where it's like a fortnight on

00:02:11.020 Mars or something? I'm an international time traveling lady that's what I do don't question

00:02:16.740 it so we're very sorry we had the absolute best of intentions as ever we always we always have

00:02:22.820 the best of intentions because we really we feel quite seriously about this unfortunately various

00:02:27.620 other things in life got in the way yes i mean good and important things yes and we thought that

00:02:36.920 what we would do before we go on to those good and important things because those would be news

00:02:41.240 items zoe and we can't talk about news items in the intro um we thought we would like draw a line

00:02:48.580 under season one and make this season two right and then that's like that's like when you watch

00:02:58.620 like a series or seasons as i americanized it too and there's a gap because the production team are

00:03:04.660 working very hard to make a new thing so that's it was yes it's very professional it's the way

00:03:11.100 that they do things in hollywood so that's how we're doing it so we're definitely we're all about

00:03:16.360 hollywood you know it we're like i'm not even gonna let's move on so we are on season two

00:03:24.660 season two and what are we going to talk about first no no wait wait we're in season two which

00:03:30.220 episode of season two are we on zoe oh episode one yes yes episode one of season two so we're

00:03:38.460 just going back to the beginning with the counting of episodes then i like that um that's good that's

00:03:43.560 good it's much better and much easier for us to remember one of the reasons i hope this is okay

00:03:49.480 to say that we've not recorded for a while this is a very minor reason is because poor david

00:03:55.720 escaped from the dungeon i mean moved on with his life so he he's no longer doing um 75 000

00:04:04.360 episodes of a podcast which his big sister coerced him into to do six or some years ago so we have

00:04:11.300 been um looking at different sound recordists um and to that end i'm going to press gang one of my

00:04:17.920 children into it who assures me she can do the job so hopefully we're back on it again and we

00:04:24.060 can just record our content and somebody can come along and and stick some music on it and make it

00:04:28.720 sound a bit better than it did originally yeah see if any of you're out there and you're thinking

00:04:32.900 hang on i'm a sound recording person because i did so we go online and look for a sound recording

00:04:38.920 person and i thought i'd really like to get it to be a woman that does it yeah and you know i could

00:04:44.200 not find a woman sound recording person that seems ridiculous surely women go into that that area i'm

00:04:50.040 sure they do yeah but if you are and this sounds like your sort of thing drop us a line i'm

00:04:56.540 confident lola will give it a bash but let's see if there's anybody else out there who might be 0.99

00:05:00.700 able to help um to sort of sound sound engineering challenged women that's me and you Claire that's

00:05:09.440 me and you okay so season two episode one now what well I think usually at this time

00:05:18.940 you ask me whether or not you know anything's been happening of late oh good god there's like

00:05:25.580 too much Claire bearing in mind this has to come in at less than an hour what has been happening

00:05:34.360 in the news news okay Claire what's happening well what's not what's not been happening Zoe

00:05:48.200 first of all we can now explain the reason that we have not been recording for the past few

00:05:55.500 month Zoe we are very very excited to let you know sorry very excited Zoe's added again just

00:06:03.600 for added stress yes that we have been writing a book we have and not only we've been writing a

00:06:11.180 book we've finished writing the book which really felt at times like that wasn't going to happen

00:06:16.220 but we did manage to finish writing the book and it's really exciting that this book is going to

00:06:21.380 be coming out into the world yes so our book is called how to kill a witch a guide for the

00:06:28.500 patriarchy and it will be coming out in may 2025 that's not too long no six six and a half months

00:06:41.040 the way i thought of it was like it was three months less than a pregnancy

00:06:45.040 yes yes that's one way of thinking about it claire we can measure it in that unit and that

00:06:53.280 is quite odd because i've never had children you've not i have it does maybe this one usually

00:07:00.520 so that's good that's a good metric okay so our book will be coming out in slightly less time

00:07:06.340 than it takes to have a normal pregnancy um this was not a normal pregnancy we should this book

00:07:13.060 no any further it was not so this this book what can we say about it claire well we can say that

00:07:20.960 you might have guessed that this book is although it's called a guide for the patriarchy maybe isn't

00:07:28.020 aimed at the patriarchy what you mean we're not on the side of those guys

00:07:32.660 i mean i can say if you enjoy the podcast if you enjoy the podcast you'll enjoy the book

00:07:41.000 good I hope so because it's definitely not a change in direction from that point no we had

00:07:46.640 a riot writing it um some of the things we've written and I mean I actually think some of the

00:07:52.660 footnotes are my best work ever Zoe the footnotes are hilarious I have to say I mean I feel sorry

00:07:58.000 for the people that were working with us because you and I were writing all the bits of the book

00:08:01.680 but then just going look at this funny joke that I've written that's that's basically what we were

00:08:05.620 doing we were in the back of the writing classroom enjoying our own gags but that's good I think

00:08:10.260 that's good but that's okay I really it is a really interesting book now obviously I would say

00:08:15.620 that you know but the fact that I have maintained interest through the writing of this book I think

00:08:20.660 that says something it surely says something if you can maintain interest in it Zoe but anyway

00:08:26.420 we promise we're not going to bang on about it for the next six months however if you do want to

00:08:34.140 pre-order it please go online to any of our socials where the links will be there you can

00:08:40.120 order it from amazon you can order it from any of the big bookstores really there's wh

00:08:47.000 independent ones i think basically any bookshop can't you yeah and our american listeners will

00:08:53.440 be saying well can you get it in the u.s and the answer is yes um we were very very excited after

00:08:59.520 we had mostly written the book that um we were approached by an american publisher

00:09:04.780 and the american publisher is bringing it out too so it's may 19 may 1925 it's definitely not

00:09:13.320 we really are time travelers it's may 2025 and i think a little later in the u.s i think it'll

00:09:22.800 probably be June yeah yeah and it's it's it'll be really cool obviously if you've seen any of

00:09:29.980 our socials you've seen what the cover is and it's all very sort of like on on a par with what

00:09:36.360 we do in the podcast so the book is not as Claire and I always say we're not historians so what we

00:09:42.500 know what we've done the book is we've given an overview of the history and we have sensibly

00:09:48.440 spoken to actual experts so we've got some really fantastic um writers can we say who they are

00:09:54.140 can we mention any of them i'm not sure we can yet we'll have to keep that on the dl we'll find

00:09:59.880 out and then when we can tell you we will tell you but suffice to say it's people that we know

00:10:04.220 our listeners are gonna really love they're fantastic they gave great interviews and it

00:10:09.700 was like super interesting to delve deeper into some of the different areas that we looked at

00:10:13.600 and we've also got stuff about what's happening today so it looks at the history and it comes

00:10:18.920 through and talks about where we are today now talking about where we are today claire

00:10:24.180 and as this is the news section is there anything else that we should mention at this point

00:10:29.340 well i'm trying really really hard not to think about the u.s elections away yeah i know like

00:10:37.720 we have a lot of us listeners i know um we don't want to get too partisan but we are feminists

00:10:44.940 so i mean at this stage you know roe v wade just so much worry and stress and and nervousness about

00:10:58.020 what that means for america and our american friends and our american family but what it

00:11:02.160 means for us as well and the rest of the world seeing as we often follow what america does so

00:11:08.240 we went out there we took our witchcraft laws out there that played out there but then since then

00:11:13.080 it's been more like scotland britain has followed behind what america's done so we're obviously as

00:11:19.160 many many women and men are worried about that situation particularly because a lot of the

00:11:24.140 rhetoric that was used during the elections claire can you remember anything that particularly

00:11:28.100 stands out in your mind from the well I mean you you've got a man first of all who was convicted

00:11:35.800 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records you've got a man who was found liable

00:11:42.440 for sexually abusing a columnist in 1996 and awarded and awarded she got awarded five million

00:11:50.160 pounds and you know you've got the man who said they let you do it you can do anything just grab 0.99

00:11:56.400 them by the pussy i mean no not the cat the rude one explaining that it's like there's not children 0.99

00:12:06.860 listening to this i don't sorry i'm very sorry i really hope i really hope there's not children 0.99

00:12:10.820 listen to it but what really scares me as a human rights lawyer is women's rights 0.95

00:12:17.640 have never been on solid ground 1.00

00:12:20.820 and I think

00:12:22.720 what happens is each

00:12:24.520 generation that goes past thinks

00:12:26.700 all things are better

00:12:28.840 we have equality, things are linear

00:12:30.680 and we're not seeing things go

00:12:32.720 in a linear fashion, we're seeing them

00:12:34.760 pulling backwards, Roe v.

00:12:36.820 Wade being one

00:12:37.860 you know, my body, my

00:12:40.780 choice is now

00:12:42.340 my body, your choice

00:12:45.320 that is

00:12:46.540 blood curdling that phrase your body my choice and the amount of people now obviously it's been

00:12:52.720 picked up on twitter which is quite correctly often described as a cesspit I'm not quite ready

00:12:58.820 to leave there yet because we've got so many fantastic people that we communicate with about

00:13:03.520 the campaign and about the podcast and I've discovered so many tremendous writers and things

00:13:08.200 like that through that so I'm not quite ready to leave but it certainly is a very interesting

00:13:13.820 sort of I don't want to say melting pot I'm not sure quite what the right phrase is for it

00:13:19.700 it's somewhere where all these really unpleasant things are encouraged and amplified and there's no

00:13:25.380 there's no responsibility or consequences for it it's the absolute worst teen behavior that's

00:13:32.300 been kind of like ratified and solidified and venerated and I think that's what we've seen 0.65

00:13:38.100 we've seen a section of society which is insecure and doesn't like women being uppity doesn't like

00:13:44.780 women having their voices doesn't like women having their rights and because there is there's

00:13:50.780 insecurity about climate change about wars around the world about cost of living about people 0.97

00:13:57.780 feeling like they've lost their special status because of their their sex then we see the same

00:14:04.020 things happening Claire you know what I'm going to say don't you yes the same things happening

00:14:08.400 so when we spoke some time ago to Rachel Crist of the Salem Witch Museum she said that the witch

00:14:15.420 museum there has a really interesting part of their displays which is about if things are

00:14:20.940 insecure socially and then there's a trigger point then there's othering of different people

00:14:26.360 so we can see that now you know there's there's worldwide insecurity because of various horrible

00:14:31.020 things are happening just now the trigger point was the election and then we see the othering of

00:14:36.740 particularly and it's not just women but particularly of women because it's a really

00:14:41.620 obvious thing to do and then you've got these content creators saying things like i'm a trad

00:14:46.440 wife i like it this way i you know i'm anti-abortion because they know it'll get clicks because there's

00:14:51.340 an appetite from that right wing whether they actually mean it or not or they're just doing

00:14:55.080 in a cynical way to drive up clicks and make revenue who knows but there's also there's also

00:15:00.820 this really really fun these really really scary christian fundamentalism um and i was watching a

00:15:08.940 pastor the other day and he was saying this isn't christian fundamentalism um he was speaking

00:15:16.520 ordinarily and rationally about things and about you know his beliefs and his religion and he was

00:15:22.140 seeing the people that are preaching under this banner of christian fundamentalism are just

00:15:27.800 preaching about control they're not preaching the word of god but they're doing under the banner and

00:15:33.640 that's the difficulty the difficulty is when people's ideas are given one brand that covers

00:15:44.380 them that keeps them safe and they're actually pushing a different line it's just horrifying

00:15:50.360 so basically we we just push on as we always have we'll keep pushing on we'll not be quiet

00:15:58.620 we need to band together we need to be strong with each other i think and we just need to

00:16:03.580 we just need to keep being active as activists i think and that is part of that educating other

00:16:09.200 girls and women yeah we need to be quarrelsome dames we absolutely do yeah we need to take up

00:16:15.660 space but i don't need to tell you zoe what sorry it is frightening though you know it is i mean i

00:16:23.920 like i'm not i've never been one to back away from a fight you know like i thought you were

00:16:28.420 going to say i'm never one to get into an argument and i would have to immediately have jumped in

00:16:32.360 and contradicted i mean i as as you and i started our zoom i was still arguing with somebody on

00:16:37.440 twitter that's not true twitter's a very unhealthy place for me as well because it's just there's so 0.59

00:16:43.640 many fuckwits on there but anyway that language aside sorry sorry listeners um it's not it is 0.91

00:16:49.640 scary though because although I wouldn't back down from a fight certainly it does make me feel a bit 0.97

00:16:54.360 more like I mean like are laws going to be changed in America so that so that you know if you were

00:17:01.440 that way inclined you could get away with being hideous to women in an even more obvious way you

00:17:07.680 know like yeah I was going to say Zoe you don't need the laws to change you don't need the laws

00:17:12.620 to change for people to be hideous to women but um but you're right you know when the state becomes 1.00

00:17:18.580 involved in the rolling back of women's rights we are you know what margaret atwood described

00:17:25.260 she talked to ruth bader ginsburg in 2018 and they had this conversation about how they saw the

00:17:33.620 future and ruth bader ginsburg said women have got into positions of power they are you know 1.00

00:17:39.940 everywhere you find business and politics, you will find women in positions of power, 1.00

00:17:46.580 our rights won't be rolled back. And Margaret Atwood disagreed. She said that she thought 1.00

00:17:53.460 that the Me Too movement, interestingly, she categorised the Me Too movement as something

00:18:00.360 that would spark a backlash.

00:18:03.780 She thought that the patriarchy 1.00

00:18:06.440 would not allow the Me Too movement to go unchecked 0.97

00:18:12.240 and there would be a response to it.

00:18:14.960 And that response would be the rolling back of rights.

00:18:17.760 And it was a really interesting discussion

00:18:19.780 between the two of them.

00:18:21.880 And Margaret Atwood said she thought 0.99

00:18:24.260 that rights would be rolled back.

00:18:26.760 And here we are, 2025 Zoe. 0.59

00:18:28.960 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, very sadly, is no longer with us

00:18:33.540 and Roe v. Wade has been overturned.

00:18:36.020 And now we're going into questions and conversations being had

00:18:40.500 about this project, project 25.

00:18:44.520 Yeah, 2025. It's just horrifying.

00:18:47.600 Anyway, let's not get too gloomy

00:18:50.820 because I spent the rest of the whole of last week

00:18:53.440 after the results were out just feeling very, very glum indeed.

00:18:58.040 and um well i i think the good news is yes that yeah i'm going to yeah the good news is

00:19:06.720 um that we have got ourselves together a group of four awesome dames listeners to this podcast

00:19:13.520 and we just unite and fight yeah i think that's that's what we can do you know and we know that

00:19:21.700 that can make a difference i think the most important thing is not is not to just go if

00:19:26.780 you're in Britain oh it's not going to happen here you know we need to be active in things and make

00:19:30.940 sure that we look after women's rights and we keep pushing for women's rights and that we are

00:19:35.300 supportive to people elsewhere so I would have to say although we didn't plan it this way and I wish

00:19:41.320 it wasn't this way that the book coming out as a you know as a feminist call to arms which talks

00:19:47.100 about the witchcraft diet the witchcraft trials and shows that what happens when you have these 0.99

00:19:53.020 ideas that are allowed to run away with themselves and that people back them up the dangers of that

00:19:57.580 this is good timing to be looking at things like that I think I know that so many people got in

00:20:03.200 contact with us and said oh it's very appropriate timing it's it's you know now more than ever and

00:20:12.340 it was like we really really didn't plan it like it could have been out two months ago or three

00:20:17.580 months later it was just it came out whenever we finished writing basically yeah yeah but the book

00:20:24.160 is the book is funny in places is as usual with what we do is very serious from the point of view

00:20:30.520 we tell the story the historians are fantastic but there's always that kind of archness and that

00:20:36.220 kind of lightness where we can actually manage to get that happening with the story so yeah we're

00:20:41.700 planning on doing various events with it we hope to do launches in different places if you live

00:20:46.840 somewhere where you think there'd be an appetite for us to come and visit your bookshop maybe or

00:20:51.180 to come and give a talk then give us a shout and you know as usual get in touch with us wherever

00:20:56.960 we've got socials and we're on instagram and facebook and of course twitter and it's always

00:21:03.400 great to hear from people yeah absolutely i was i forgot to mention that earlier in fact um we've

00:21:10.120 already had a couple of people contacting us saying oh are you going to do a book tour the

00:21:15.060 answer to that is hopefully yes yes um but we have to plan that ourselves include it both here

00:21:21.280 and both in the u.s um but if you are sitting there thinking oh do you know i've got a group

00:21:26.880 of people that would really like to come and listen to zoe and claire talk about these sorts

00:21:32.860 of things um then please do get in contact with us we um um we're booking up fast six months seems

00:21:43.760 to be slipping away from us already.

00:21:46.880 So please do get in contact with us

00:21:48.500 if you fancy us coming to see you

00:21:51.840 and speak about it.

00:21:53.240 That'd be cool.

00:21:53.960 Anywhere in the world,

00:21:55.260 Claire and I are very keen to travel,

00:21:57.100 aren't we?

00:21:58.120 We are.

00:21:59.120 It would be brilliant.

00:22:00.160 I love getting out and about

00:22:01.100 and speaking to people.

00:22:02.560 But okay, so when we come back

00:22:05.080 after this episode,

00:22:06.560 we will be talking

00:22:08.200 to various different guests.

00:22:09.640 We've already got a couple of interviews

00:22:11.240 that are in the can.

00:22:12.100 we just need to get our sound recorder sound recordist sound recorderist sound recorder

00:22:18.820 maybe maybe we can't get one yeah maybe we can't get one because we don't know what to call them

00:22:23.960 maybe we're calling the wrong name when we stand outside our front doors saying here sound no so

00:22:29.700 we once we've got that that tidied up and edited then we'll put them out we've got some really

00:22:34.240 interesting stuff actually coming up that we know that you're going to enjoy um quite a variety and

00:22:38.960 we've got other people as well that we've got slated to talk to too so i think it's going to

00:22:42.160 be this is going to be a great series just as long as we can get ourselves organized but there's no

00:22:47.360 reason why we couldn't so claire now we should move on as we usually do at this point zoe to

00:22:55.620 talk about women not witches yes women not witches of course right so normally we look at

00:23:04.000 just historic witchcraft accusations.

00:23:07.460 But Claire, you've got a story this time

00:23:09.840 that is from now, sadly.

00:23:12.140 Would you like to hear of that?

00:23:14.360 The reason, just because we were talking

00:23:16.580 about the election and stuff like that,

00:23:18.840 I thought that I would highlight

00:23:21.360 what happened in the US election.

00:23:24.680 And in particular, the use of the rhetoric being

00:23:31.340 that the left were being influenced by satanic forces, and in particular that Kamala Harris

00:23:42.460 employed witchcraft in a Trump debate. Now, this claim was by Maga Pastor, who was having

00:23:54.060 a pre-election rally, I suppose.

00:23:59.600 I'm not sure if that's the correct word.

00:24:02.380 His name is Lance Wall now,

00:24:04.220 and he accused Kamala Harris of using witchcraft

00:24:08.360 in the presidential debate.

00:24:10.680 He said, when I say witchcraft,

00:24:13.380 I'm talking about what happened tonight,

00:24:16.100 occult-empowered deception, manipulation, and domination.

00:24:21.080 Now, when you start to hear phrases like that, it is an absolute enormous red flag to people that women are being accused of being in league with the devil.

00:24:39.840 He said that he also accused the debate moderators of colluding with the Harris campaign and said that's what ABC pulled off as moderators and Kamala's script handlers set up the kill box, one-sided question checking sealed the box, witchcraft.

00:24:59.980 So that was the phraseology that he used and this particular man you're thinking oh well it's just someone who's said this and he doesn't have any power or any influence but what is particularly alarming about this is that he was somebody who the now Vice President Vance in fact later shared a stage with.

00:25:26.420 Now, although he didn't repeat those when the vice president was standing beside him, it's still really, really scary that these people that are seriously suggesting witchcraft is being used by women in politics in America is getting closer and closer to the people in power.

00:25:45.500 it's concerning isn't it and you know you'd like to think 10 years ago people would have just

00:25:51.800 laughed at that and just said that's absolutely ridiculous but i think the more nervous people

00:25:56.560 fear about feel about what is happening with the future of the planet um i think the more 0.83

00:26:02.300 ridiculous ideas might get you know the more conspiracy theories there'll be the more paranoia

00:26:07.980 there'll be um and the more sort of outlandish ridiculous statements will be seen as being 0.89

00:26:13.900 believable but one thing that i need to bring here which is a really uncomfortable truth

00:26:18.120 which is that there was a great deal of white women voters that voted for trump and i think that

00:26:24.920 that doesn't prove doesn't disprove patriarchy it proves that during times of real worry

00:26:31.620 there will be some women that cling to this kind of vestige this seeming power and we saw the same

00:26:37.600 thing happen during the witch trials where often it would be women that were involved in the

00:26:42.040 accusations against other women with an idea that you know well they must be right they're men they 0.91

00:26:47.380 know better or if i stick with them then i'm safe you know and it's a it's a lack of security as well

00:26:53.260 themselves i don't really know what the answer is to that it's just it's just really grim really

00:26:58.060 well i i think i think there's all always um bear saying we're all part of the patriarchy

00:27:04.800 you know we're all part of the system it's not just men v women um but it's a really really

00:27:11.400 bad construct which doesn't allow women to fulfill their potential and if they did fulfill

00:27:18.260 their potential the world would be a better place it doesn't really serve men either and i think that

00:27:23.060 men does serve them but it pushes them into these these awful gender roles you know we keep hearing

00:27:28.520 about the loneliness of men and how you know men can't get girlfriends and so on and that's because

00:27:33.360 i think a lot of the time they're buying into these these andrew tate patriarchal notions of

00:27:39.960 what it is to be a man now in 2024 of what a woman should be in 2024 and again strangely

00:27:48.440 uncannily this is somebody who's got a great sway who's also been accused of trafficking and of

00:27:56.800 sexual assault and of violence towards women you know like let's be really frank with this and we

00:28:02.200 need to keep challenging it we need to keep being as claire said earlier quarrelsome dames because

00:28:07.440 it affects all of us not just the most strident women not just women that are standing up just

00:28:13.120 lots and lots and lots of regular women so women not witches oh i like that segue that was very

00:28:21.380 professional zoe thanks very much just came out of nowhere as if by magic oh no i didn't say

00:28:27.800 right that was the twist in season two that no one saw coming we're actually witches

00:28:35.520 we're not witches we're not no something oh no quick clear quick move on um so um zoe we've done

00:28:45.440 the modern day witchcraft accusations yes don't have any historical witchcraft accusations i do

00:28:51.820 so one one thing that i thought was was quite interesting to have a look at was we know there

00:28:57.060 thousands of people accused we know that about 84 of the accused were women and we also know that

00:29:02.280 even though the um the database that edinburgh university have put together which by the way

00:29:07.660 has now got like a different sort of revamped much groovier version which is absolutely going

00:29:13.060 and have a look at um ewan mccandrew and julian good air and ruby imri who's the latest um now

00:29:19.980 what's it she's what's her job title again it's um which she's got a really great job title about

00:29:28.960 wikipedia but also witches witchy pedist it's not witchy pedist it's something like that sorry

00:29:36.200 ruby i can't remember what the title of your job is but she's done a bloody marvelous job they all

00:29:40.280 have so you can go in and you can search much more easily now there's lots of really interesting

00:29:44.560 categories it's absolutely worth looking having a look at and i believe i've not had a chance to do

00:29:49.420 it yet they have also created a walking tour of edinburgh that i've heard some rave reviews about

00:29:54.860 as well so that's definitely all worth having a look at but even though they have done a tremendous

00:29:59.200 tremendous job with that there are still lots and lots of people mostly women who have very very

00:30:04.740 scant details and that's because the details just don't exist they've lost the paperwork it was

00:30:09.540 never written down properly it was written down inaccurately it's been you know it's been damaged

00:30:14.040 in flood or fire so i thought i'd give an example of somebody here who has got virtually no details

00:30:19.960 okay what we know about this woman is that her name was margaret fife and that she was accused

00:30:26.280 in the crook of devon which is in uh kinross which is near perth it's part of persia i believe

00:30:33.400 kinross is i hope that's right it's not very far from me actually but all we know was that the year

00:30:38.980 was 1696 but we know nothing nothing else about this woman we know she's a woman her name was

00:30:45.580 margaret fife the area that she was accused in but we don't know exactly what the details of

00:30:50.380 her accusation were we don't know the details of her trial we don't even know if she was found

00:30:54.560 guilty on when if she was found guilty she was executed all we've got is that we've got her name

00:31:00.100 the accused details name which are margaret fife that's all we've got so we remember the illustration

00:31:07.320 of lots of just ordinary women yeah just ordinary women now we remember her as a woman and indeed

00:31:16.860 not a witch so we'll be back very soon yes we will we will be back very soon i.e a fortnight's time

00:31:26.440 and we have six blistering episodes before the book arrives brilliant okay so month's way

00:31:35.360 yes right okay just working that out in my mind there might be more okay so thank you so much

00:31:42.280 for listening to this after the enormous break please get in touch with us on our regular socials

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Witches of Scotland - November 24, 2024

THE QUARRELSOME DAMES RETURN

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