Late 16th. Century Scotland is the setting for this tale of Royal intrigue, old superstitions and clerical outrage. It is based on the extant court records of the charges of witchcraft brought against a Prestonpans schoolteacher, John Cunningham and others, known as the North Berwick Witches, accusing them of conspiring with the Devil to kill King James V1 of Scots by raising storms in the Firth of Forth. The main characters are real historical persons.
The book follows John’s courtship of a local lass, Helen Sinclair and the circumstances which led to his involvement with the minister of Haddington and friend of James V1, a certain James Carmichael. It is a poignant story of love, adventure and conspiracy.
It also had the effect of fanning the flames of mindless witch-hunts which continued for over a hundred years till witchcraft trials were abolished in 1735, or so I thought. But a Helen Duncan, a Scotswoman from Callender, was arrested, charged with the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and imprisoned for making public the fact that H.M.S Barham, had been torpedoed with the loss of 861 seamen by a German U-Boat in 1941-a fact the British Government had been trying to keep secret. Apparently she had talked with one of the dead seamen who told her of the incident. It was 1951 before this Witchcraft Act was repealed.

The Blew Stane on the Edinburgh Castle esplanade was the scene of the burnings of ‘witches’ in those days. The large stone is still there, but underneath the tarmacadam of the modern esplanade. A fountain dedicated to those poor souls can be seen at the entrance to the esplanade.

The remains of St. Andrews Kirk in North Berwick, where James V1 and his fellow conspirators claimed that witches and Lord Bothwell had gathered to worship the Devil and attempt to kill the king. None of the ‘witches’ came from North Berwick.