The Familiars - Stacey Halls

The Familiars by Stacey Halls was my 2019 Christmas holiday read, and what an enthralling piece of historical fiction it was. Set in 1612 in Lancashire (half the reason why I bought this book because that's where home is), the mistress of Gawthorpe Hall, Fleetwood Shuttleworth, is only 17 and pregnant for the fourth time. Her husband Richard is keen for an heir to the estate, but so far she has miscarried three babies and it seems that she is having familiar problems during her fourth pregnancy. To add to her stress, she finds a hidden letter to Richard from a doctor, saying that she will not survive another birth.

Whilst out riding on the hall's grounds, Fleetwood comes upon a strange young girl, Alice Grey, who happens to be a midwife from a poor background. The girl promises to help Fleetwood deliver a healthy baby and survive labour, having had much success with previous births, and the two become unlikely friends. In a novel where the men are notoriously untrustworthy, power-hungry and misogynistic, the friendship between the women gives strength and hope to each of them.

Set against the backdrop of the Pendle Witch Trials, the novel sees many innocent women being caught up in accusation, often for simply providing herbal medicines to people. Not only are people hunting 'witches', but often just women - for no reason other than association. To make matters worse, Fleetwood's midwife is one of those accused, and Fleetwood must risk everything to help save her from the gallows.

As a great lover of period dramas, this book was so up my street. The grandeur and loneliness of the estate and the wildness of the surrounding landscape is at once eerie and captivating. You really feel for the protagonist and her status as a woman, however noble her position may be - she is ultimately a second-class citizen whose ability to produce children will determine whether she is useful or not. Halls' prose is intricate yet lucid, and this is one of those books you sit down with and really lose track of time. 

For a debut novel this is really an accomplishment and I look forward to reading further works in the future. The elements of a thriller made the novel fast-paced and gripping, and I didn't realise until later that the characters of Fleetwood and Alice were real historical figures. Well worth a read!