The Bideford Witches:

John Callow and Shami Chakrabarti in Conversation

Watch the video

The Bideford Witches:
John Callow and Shami Chakrabarti in Conversation

Part of the Festival of the Accused

Uncover the tale of the last witches of England.

In his fascinating book The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition, John Callow charts the changing attitudes towards the Bideford women, from revulsion to regret, into celebration in our own age. He is joined by human rights lawyer, campaigner and writer Shami Chakrabarti. Together they’ll uncover the tragedy of the Bideford women and ask what it tells us about present day persecution and the dangers of demonising others.

Speakers

  • John Callow

    Historian

    Headshot of John Callow
    Read bio

  • Shami Chakrabarti

    Lawyer and Campaigner

    Headshot of Shami Chakrabarti
    Read bio

John Callow

Historian

John Callow is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Suffolk, UK, who has written widely on early modern witchcraft, politics and popular culture. His latest book is: The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).

Headshot of John Callow

Shami Chakrabarti

Lawyer and Campaigner

Shami Chakrabarti (Baroness Chakrabarti CBE PC) is a human rights lawyer and campaigner, Labour Peer and was Shadow Attorney General, 2016 to 2020. She was the Director of Liberty from 2003 to 2016 and a panellist on the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics after the phone-hacking scandal. She was the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and of the University of Essex and served on the Board of the British Film Institute (BFI) for many years. Shami has written and broadcast widely and is the author of two books; On Liberty (2014) and Of Women (2017).

Headshot of Shami Chakrabarti