We are delighted to be joined by Leading human rights lawyer Claire Mitchell, KC, and writer, Zoe Venditozzi on Friday 23rd May at 7.30pm as they talk about the impassioned and authoritative, searing analysis of the sixteenth-century Scottish witch trials presented in their new book How to Kill a Witch.

Lilias Adie (c. 1640-1704) was a Scottish woman from the coastal town of Torryburn, Fife. She was accused of witchcraft and fornicating with the devil but she died in prison before a sentence could be passed. Two walking sticks were made from the box that held the body and Lilias Adie, one of which was given to Andrew Carnegie. Both sticks (one on loan from ONFife) will be on display during the event.

As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500-1700s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning.

Inspired to correct this historic injustice, Claire and Zoe, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of witches to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions, trial, execution and beyond.

With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world.