Events
Marion Gibson, author and consultant on the history oN witchcraft and magic
Check here for Marion’s appearances at history and literary festivals, library and education events. More events coming soon!
New events for 2026! More details to follow as festivals and bookshops open their booking pages:
Mairi Kidd, Marion Gibson & Steven Veerapen: The Witching Hour
Edinburgh Book Festival | Thursday 20th August, 2026
At a time when women’s rights are once again at threat across the world, it’s perhaps no wonder that our fascination with the witch-hunts of the 1600s still burns bright. Today, we’re joined by Mairi Kidd (Newes of Witches), Marion Gibson (Witchland), and Steven Veerapen (Witches: A King’s Obsession) – the authors of brilliant new books that touch on themes of paranoia, moral panic, and obsession. What can our witch-hunting past warn us about the world of today?
Marion Gibson Witchland with Beverley Wass
Blackwells, Oxford | Saturday 22nd August, 2026
If the witchfinders came to your town, who would you have believed – and what would you have done? Marion Gibson talks about Witchland, the captivating story of witchcraft, inequality and the violence that surfaces during times of political and economic upheaval.
Topping & Co
York | Monday 31st August, 2026
Marion Gibson is Emerita Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter. She’s been thinking about witches in history since she read her first account of a witch trial in a book lent to her on a dark, rainy afternoon thirty years ago. She was so excited by the story that she forgot to give the book back… Marion joins us for her new book Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth-Century Britain.
Britain’s Accused Witches – Launch & Soirée
Treadwells, London | Thursday 3rd September, 2026
Marion Gibson explores the role of community tensions in the witch hunts of Britain. Drinks follow.
The Bookery, Crediton
Devon | Friday 11th September, 2026
An evening with Professor Marion Gibson, author of Witchland. Copies of Witchland will be available to purchase on the night (sales organised by The Bookery). The presentation will be followed by a Q&A. Refreshments available.
Gloucester History Festival talk
Tuesday 15th September, 2026
Why did ordinary people come to believe their neighbours were witches? And what does that tell us about Britain’s past? One of Britain’s great historians of witchcraft, Marion Gibson explores the extraordinary people and places behind England’s witch trials of the 1640s, a nationwide witch-hunt fuelled by the extremism of the English Civil War and providing a playbook for the Salem Witch Trials a few decades later.
Essex Record Office
Chelmsford | Tuesday 29th September, 2026
Join us to hear from Marion on the results of her latest research as well as having the opportunity to purchase a copy of her new book Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth-Century Britain (Simon and Schuster, 2026). Marion’s talks always sell out so be sure to book ASAP!!!
British Museum online members talk
Online | Tuesday 13th October, 2026
Details to follow.
Tavistock Wharf
Devon | Monday 19th October , 2026
Details to follow.
The Mystery of the Dartmouth Witches, 1601-2
Mint Methodist Church, Exeter | Saturday 24th October, 2026
Details to follow.
The Haunted Landscape
Conway Hall, London | Saturday 21st November, 2026
Details to follow.
Past events
Gloucester History Festival “Witch Night”with Janina Ramirez and Candia McKormack
Blackfriars Priory, Gloucester UK | Sunday, September 21, 2025 | 8-10pm
Step into the candlelit shadows of Blackfriars Priory as Witch Night weaves its dark enchantment. Witchcraft historian Marion Gibson joins Janina Ramirez to uncover centuries of spellcraft and sorcery from Britain’s past. The spellbinding Three Ravens conjure stories of witches and wonder, before Inkubus Sukkubus fill the vaulted Priory with haunting folk music. Surrender to a night of magic, myth and mystery.
Marion Gibson – “Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials”
Isle of Wight Literary Festival Events, LitFeast Marquee – Cowes | Friday 4th October, 2024
Marion will be talking about her book Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials, which tells the stories of people accused of witchcraft across seven centuries and explores the meaning of the word “witch” today.
Author and Historian Marion Gibson Discusses “Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials“
Ashland Library MA, USA | Thursday, March 7, 2024 | 10am ET (Boston time)
We are so fascinated with witches and witchcraft so we are taking this opportunity to discuss both with historian and author Marion Gibson about her book, “Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials”. This book is a fascinating, vivid global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate the pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history. So grab your morning tea (or afternoon tea, depending on where you are) and join us for this fascinating conversation.
“Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials” – Marion Gibson in conversation with Cathy Rentzenbrink
Wayward Book Festival, Falmouth UK | Wednesday, 1st May, 2024 | 6:30pm
The world of witch-hunts and witch trials sounds archaic and fanciful, these terms relics of an unenlightened, brutal age. However, we often hear ‘witch-hunt’ in today’s media, and the misogyny that shaped witch trials is all too familiar. In Witchcraft, Marion Gibson delves into the history of the witch trial but also their persevering relevance: witch trials have been twisted and transformed over the course of history, the definition of a witch reimagined and repurposed over time.
Author and Historian Marion Gibson Discusses “Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials“
Essex Book Festival, Chelmsford UK | Tuesday, 25th June, 2024
More information at www.essexbookfestival.org.uk.
Chalke Valley History Festival
Watch my Desert Island Books from the Festival here
Time for another ‘Desert Island Books’! 📚
Today Marion Gibson, Professor of Exeter University gives her top 5 which includes books by Hallie Rubenhald and Annie Garthwaite… Marion will be at Chalke Valley History Festival on Tuesday 27th June to talk about WITCHCRAFT: A HISTORY IN THIRTEEN TRIALS.
Bury St Edmunds Literary Festival
Saturday 21st October 2023
This panel event with three celebrated authors, whose work tells the stories of the women they called witches, will explore both the history and the modern relevance of such stories. The authors will read from and talk about their books and there will be discussion about why we shouldn’t forget the plight of the people who lost their lives to the witch trials in the town we live in.
Standon Calling Festival
Friday 21st July 2023
Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival
Sunday 24th September 2023
Professor Marion Gibson, Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter, and the writer Kim Sherwood (A Wild and True Relation) explore the historic treatment of ‘different’ women in reality and fiction, and why ‘witch’ is such a pejorative term and loaded with fear and loathing.
London ComicCon
Saturday 27th May 2023
British Library Festival of the Accused
Saturday 4th November 2023
Reinventing and reclaiming the witch with Kirsty Logan, Juno Dawson, Malcolm Gaskill, Ronald Hutton, Naomi Paxton, Marion Gibson, John Callow, Shami Chakrabarti, Marisa Carnesky, Zoë Howe, the Witches of Scotland, Jenny Runacre, Amy Kingsmill, Parma Ham and more.
From the blog
What She’s Having: Stories of Women and Food, by Dear Damsels
hello@jesscookdesign.co.uk 
November 28, 2023 
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch, by Rivka Galchen
hello@jesscookdesign.co.uk November 28, 2023 
Contact Marion
via her agents for information on her availability for work