Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A great read, information relevant and interesting. Great grounding in some relevantfacts and stories worth hearing.

I have started many times reading the book as I generally find the subject fascinating, but unfortunately, I could not engage with it. After several false starts, it is with great pain that I need to declare this a DNF.

Those coming to this book might be expecting a history of trials, persecution, sinister doings and peculiar people - and also, a foray into the phenomenon that post-1950s modern witchcraft. This is not that book – in its place, we have something far more fascinating. Instead of a book detailing the history of witchcraft, we have a book detailing those who interacted it with, those who felt they had been cursed by malicious powers, those who sought to make a living undoing these curses, and those who observed all these events and left recollections of them.

The author presents witchcraft is an almost sociological manner - a response to anxiety and terror. In the end, it doesn't matter for the author whether malicious powers exist, as those who believe themselves to have been on the receiving end of these powers certainly have existed, and continue to do so.

This is a history of belief, and especially a history of the 'victims' of witchcraft from all angles. The text gives a glimpse into the lives of those accused and the limited options that their lives and status afforded them. (The author also points out that whilst women were predominantly accused of being witches, the vast majority of the accused were married and middle-aged, not young and single or widowed, as we might presume.)

Crucially, the author traces the phenomenon of witchcraft from the 1700s, from the rise of the great cities, the encounters with witchcraft across the Empire, and through to the present day. Indeed, many histories would place witchcraft in terminal decline from this moment, yet the author takes us through the decades, giving us clear examples of its survival - yet in the background, there is the shift of the State from open hostility to official scepticism on the matter of witches. The fascinating relationship between revolution, religion and the supernatural are explored - how was it possible that in advanced Victorian Britain, so many continued to believe and fear in witchcraft, especially after the rise of education in the 19th century?

Yet, as with so many things, the mid-20th century becomes the turning point. Witchcraft did not fade out of existence as might have been expected (and as historians of religion similarly predicted), but with the gentrification of the country, the end of the oral storytelling tradition, the rise of the State and the NHS, the improvement in living conditions, the decline of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, it shifted and evolved.

The strange pre-dominance of witchcraft is the West Country is explored at length, as well as forays into Scotland. I found the book perhaps less engaging as it moved into the 20th century, with the growth of spiritualism and mesmerism. Those looking for great detail in the rise of 'high ritual witchcraft and the various threads of Wicca will perhaps be disappointed.

A substantial amount of the text details the curious phenomenon of 'cunning folk' who for money would undo curses and break spells and how they shifted into fortune-tellers and abortion providers as the centuries passed. The author presents these folk as an example of those reclaiming mental and spiritual autonomy for the oppressed, albeit at cost.

As we come to the late 20th century and our own time, there are those who still believe in curses, in witchcraft, in demonic possession and the ministry of deliverance, but as the author makes clear, this is a depersonalised account of witchcraft, for a depersonalised age. No longer do we fear the woman in our village who has cursed us - we live in cities and do not know our neighbours, so our fears and dreads have also become broader and depersonalised.

I found the first chapters on the 1700s-1950s far more engaging than the latter sections on the present age, which almost felt tagged on. However, the example of the gentleman who believed his family was cursed in our time was indeed unsettling, as was his despair that no-one would believe him or help him.

This was a fascinating book, and I would commend it - not to those who are interested in witchcraft - but to those who would appreciate a good read by a historian on belief in Britain across the centuries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC

Thomas Waters' Cursed Britain was a great read some stories I was aware of others I was not. One is fairly local to me and may have to visit.

Well researched and a good read, I read it during every grey and windy day or stormy night to help set the scene

Not as great as I hoped, very disappointing! Author spends a lot of time giving his opinions about witchcraft and magic, I was hoping for a historical look about the British context - not a condescending view from someone who would be better writing opinion pieces.

I was really disappointed with this book, and it frustrated me in parts. First, there was a disconnect from the title ‘a history of witchcraft and black magic in modern times’. I expected there to be a focus on the modern times instead the focus was revolved around the Victorian times. I also found it had little to do with Britain, which also went against the title. 

I also didn’t appreciate the author presenting that witchcraft is to be feared and that it’s all black magic. Things have moved on from the past and witchcraft is now more understood and it’s not about cursing people. 

I thought about abandoning this book halfway through, but I finished it to see if my opinion could be flipped around. It wasn’t - and I really hoped it would be.

I have been puzzled for a while by the upsurge in interest in spiritualism and witchcraft during the interwar years, this book provides at least some of the answers. It also good on the growth of religions like obeah.

A really lovely work for British history buffs and the supernatural enthusiasts alike! Such a lovely dark look to the book as well!

DNF

As someone with a deep interest in the history of the supernatural, I was very excited to read this book. However, it’s very poorly written, and the author seems to spend more time pushing his views on the state of the world rather than talking about the history of magic.

This was such a fascinating and well-written book. I have read a few books about witchcraft and while I still read them every now and then, I tend to be disappointed because I don't feel I learn much I didn't know already after reading a couple of books. This was different and mostly because a lot of what I have read before was about the witch trials, rather than popular beliefs and attitudes. I had no idea Victorians still believed in witchcraft as much as they did, or what the law said, or what people often believed and how they explained their beliefs in the supernatural. I found the chapter on colonisation and witchcraft really interesting as well and very informative; and the attitudes to immigration in Britain - towards Roma and Irish people especially - was eye-opening.
It was a fantastic book to read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Cursed Britain was a long and difficult read for me to get through but I pushed through it in high hopes it may suddenly surprise me, unfortunately it didn't.
This books title states Cursed Britain leading you to think the book is about witchcraft and dark magic and curses in British history but isn't necessarily just about Britain as is noticed when you read it.
The book is quite heavy going and drawn out which caused the book to become boring and dragging as it was read.
I rated this book 3 stars instead of the initial 2 stars I was going to give it because the author does seem to have an extensive knowledge about the subject and not everyone will have the same opinion on this book as me so do give it a read if it sounds your type of read.
Photographs or drawings would of been nice scattered through the book and would have made an interesting addition within the book.

This book was incredibly dense, and a little dry at times so I had to read this in small sections.
Some of the stories in this book were really interesting, but others I found a little dull.

Overall, I found this book quite difficult to get through - because it was so dense. It didn't always capture my interest either, it was only some stories that fascinated me and drew me in, and then when that was over I felt slightly disconnected again.

A fascinating read, I've ordered a set in for the store and can't wait to get selling! Fabulously researched, would recommend!

I have to agree with the other reviews of this book that the title does not match the content. This is not modern, nor exclusively British. Nor does it really investigate witchcraft and demonology. What it is though is a lot of published newspaper articles during Victorian times. All of them are most usually about women afflicted with mental illness or persecuted by the local villagers. All of this is presented with the obligatory foot notes which makes for a not particularly enjoyable reading experience and I found it rather jumbled and hard to follow at times.

The author then goes on to suggest the decline of witchcraft during the 20th century but does not mention Gerald Gardner and associates for instance. Suddenly toward the end of the book there is a note on witchcraft and the internet. Again depicted negatively in relation to online shopping.

I’m unsure of the purpose of this book? Is meant to discount magickal practices? If you are after a serious look at the history of witchcraft there is better reading available but if you are interested in how witchcraft was perceived by mainstream media this will be of interest. I did enjoy it for the news clipping research which was kind of fascinating.

*eArc provided by the publisher and NetGalley

A fascinating history, compiled in meticulous detail, of witchcraft in the UK since 1800. I found this engaging and surprising in equal measure, particularly the sections that explored links with empire and multicultural modern Britain.

At times it veered close to mere recounting of specific cases as reported by contemporary sources, primarily newspapers. And I longed for a bit more and a bit deeper analysis of causes and possible remedies. But this is nitpicking.

In essence the book's conclusion is a simple one. The prevalence of witchcraft belief is not so much linked to education, as many of us would instinctively believe, but to life's hardships and government efforts to alleviate these. When poverty declines, and most particularly when healthcare and policing improve, witchcraft recedes.

‘Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times’ by Thomas Waters covers the history of witchcraft from the 19th century up to contemporary times, focusing rather on those ‘cursed’ and those who believed in witches and witchcraft rather than witches and those practising magic or witchcraft. While those practisers of witchcraft still play important role in Thomas Waters’ book, they are not the most important part of ‘Cursed Britain’. At the forefront are those who have experienced the curses and bewitchments. Importantly, Thomas Waters makes a point that not always they were able to point out who was ‘the witch’ responsible for their misfortune. In other cases, pointing into a direction of a witch was easy – and often it was a person in the community that was older, poorer and somehow misfortunate as well, usually female.

Thomas Waters uses interesting and often quite unusual primary and secondary sources in order to create a comprehensive account of witchcraft in the modern times, but I felt that some parts of the book worked better than the others. While on the overall, ‘Cursed Britain’ has been an interesting read, I have enjoyed the latter half of the book far more. The discussion of the witchcraft in the old British colonies has been interesting personally for me as well as analysing the immigration and its effect on the beliefs of the British people, with new traditions, beliefs and tales coming into play.

Thank you to Yale University Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for this book.

Sadly, I have to report that I felt rather lukewarm towards it, which definitely partly stems from the fact that the book simply wasn't quite what I had expected it to be. It was much more of a historical recollection of witchcraft in Britain and it's colonies, rather than focussing on present day Britain. The cover and title had somehow given me the impression that this would be a great resource to get some information about witchcraft as someone who does not have a lot of knowledge on the topic, but would like to gain some insight. However, the terminology and very detailed writing style definitely suggest otherwise. This might be more suitable for people who already possess more knowledge of the topic and are looking to further deepen it.

Thank you to Yale University Press and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy.
Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times by Thomas Waters is an extremely informative piece of literature. Waters provides an excellent and informed account of the history of witchcraft within Britain. And, whilst the book can be heavy going in some parts, it has clearly been well researched.
Personally, I believe that this book would better suit the advanced, more knowledgeable reader rather than a novice of the topic or someone with just a passing interest. Though the academia of the book may be deduced from its publisher, Yale University Press, the cover style does seem to suggest otherwise. I feel many will be surprised at the dense level of detail that the author uses.
The book covers an extensive period of time, leaving the reader with a well-rounded picture of events. However, despite what the title may suggest, it is weighted slightly more towards the history of witchcraft, as opposed to how it translates to the “modern times”. However, this should not dissuade readers, as the information provided is presented in a manner that is both enlightening and informative.
Overall, this book provides an interesting look at Britain and its history of witchcraft and black magic. It should be seen as a supplement to the reader’s understanding of the subject matter, and not a book in which to gain a foundation of knowledge.

A very thorough account of the history of witchcraft. In Britain. The book is well organised and covers a time period from 1500’s to the modern day. If you want to know the history of witchcraft in Britain, then it would be hard to find a more informative book.