The Persecution of Strong Women

What a story from 700 years ago can tell us about 21st century shaming

It is six years since the release of Boyce’s award winning debut, The Herbalist. In a recent newspaper interview she claimed the first draft of Her Kind was completed in 2014. The time between was taken up with revision and the long time-scales of the traditional publishing process. As another reviewer has said, it was well worth the wait.

Boyce has taken real events from the fourteenth century and crafted from them a highly imaginative fantasy. In dong so, she has given us a version of those events that has a much greater ring of truth than the official versions. As she claims, those were written, not by the victims of a witch hunt, but by the men who instigated it. By telling the story from the points of view of the female participants, as well as the man whose tortured mind dreamed up the allegations, she has created a deeper truth. A truth that draws on the reality of medieval life in Ireland, the strained relationships between the different communities — French, Anglo-Norman, Flemish, Welsh and Gael.

As merchants, Anglo-Norman lords and the Catholic Church jostle for control of the city of Kilkennie, the idea that a wealthy moneylender has achieved her success by poisoning a succession of wealthy husbands gains…