Cunning Folk cover art

Cunning Folk

Life in the Era of Practical Magic

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Cunning Folk

By: Tabitha Stanmore
Narrated by: Anna Wilson-Jones
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Cunning Folk transports us to a time when magic was used to solve life’s day-to-day problems – as well as some of deadly importance.

It’s 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they’ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you’re facing trial. Maybe you’re looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do? In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might well have been cunning folk: practitioners of magic who were a common, even essential part of daily life, at a time when the supernatural was surprisingly mundane.

Charming, thought-provoking and based on original research, Cunning Folk is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world by an expert historian, as well as a commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.

‘A brilliant book, written with wit and vigour’ MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin of All Witches

‘Absolutely fascinating’ IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

‘I adore Cunning Folk. A truly fascinating and human book’ Ruth Goodman, author of How To Be a Tudor

‘Packed with vivid historical anecdotes, this is an intriguing insight into the magical lives of past people and the history of our own superstitions today’ Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft

‘Fascinating . . . opens a window into another world’ Tracy Borman, author of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I

‘Full of such magical tips and colourful vignettes . . . crackles with incident’ Kate Maltby, Financial Times

‘Spirited and richly detailed’ New York Times

©2024 Tabitha Stanmore (P)2024 Penguin Audio

 Customs & Traditions Europe Magic Medieval Religious Studies Renaissance Social Sciences Witchcraft Divination Royalty Extrasensory Perception Magic Users

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Critic reviews

This is a brilliant book, written with wit and vigour, in which Tabitha Stanmore explores the pre-modern places where magic was real, offering not only practical solutions for ordinary problems but a way of feeling about the world, an emotional relationship between anxious humans, cosmic forces, and the mundane mysteries of their lives
Absolutely fascinating. Cunning Folk is a much-needed book that draws attention to a little-known but important aspect of daily life. Like all good history books, it tells us about ourselves as well as the past. It will both inform and inspire readers
Eye-opening ... [Cunning Folk] gives a human face to magic in medieval and early modern England, bringing us closer than ever to the hopes, dreams and aspirations of both clients and practitioners
Tabitha Stanmore’s engaging new social history of magic . . . full of such magical tips and colourful vignettes . . . She’s clearly a sharp reader of social realities, and sometimes offers clear-eyed social assessments of why magical rituals had real-world consequences . . . the result is this cheerful, colourful compendium of stories, which crackles with incident (Kate Maltby)
Illuminating… Cunning Folk shows us that our forebears were seeking answers through the tools they had
Spirited and richly detailed … With hundreds of colourful incidents drawn from legal records, court chronicles and contemporary accounts, Stanmore hopscotches through history, exploring the uses to which cunning folk were put
This is a fascinating book, clearly written and illuminating about the psychological necessity of magical thought
A fascinating and intricately researched book that opens a window into another world
The best introduction to late medieval and early modern popular magic yet written ... Comprehensive, humane, lively, and a great read
This isn't just a book: it's a window on the hopes, passions and lives of Europe five centuries ago. We know the horror film version of magic. Tabitha Stanmore - uncovering a whole treasure house of long-lost private lives - adds the rich, fresh, human version
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed this immensely. It's a fascinating look at the magical practices of the medieval and early modern period that is both informative and entertaining (and often very funny) while never condescending to ridicule the lives of the people it describes. It treats magic and the people who engaged in it with the utmost respect.

A fascinating listen!

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Research was thorough and the book flowed well through different stories and her interpretations of social history, yet its light-hearted and interesting .

Historic evidence

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Broken up into helpful sections- gives as clear a sense as we can reasonably hope for when it comes to how magic appeared in the lives of people in the past.

Lovely - thorough and thoughtful

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I had never realised that Cunning Folk were so distinct both culturally and legally for most of western history from the unfortunate people persecuted for witchcraft.

Really can't praise this enough, engaging, entertaining, balanced, the author has a knack for turning the subjects subtly so you can see different perspectives, all the while holding firmly to her initial statement that she cannot say for certain what was happening because she wasn't there.

Learned a tremendous amount I didn't know before, and immediately started listening again as soon as I finished, findng lots I had missed, one of the best works of history I've encountered 🙂

Wonderful book, remarkable engaging and illuminating history :)

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