Witches Copse was first published in 2022 and is the first part of the Witches Copse trilogy, which includes the forthcoming Witches Blooding and Witches End.
Witches Copse is set in the UK in 1979, during the winter of discontent. For those of you unfamiliar with this time in British history. The winter of discontent was a phrase used to describe the period between November 1978 and February 1979. The Labour Party was in power, in constant battle with the trade unions. It was a time of civil unrest; bin bags lined the streets as widespread strikes caused great public inconvenience. Sadly, some of those images bear a close resemblance to current times. Yet, in January 1979, to make matters worse, severe snow storms blighted the country as Britain endured its coldest winter in 16 years.
The story begins in a dingy London Bar, where gun-for-hire Elizabeth May Daton (AKA Dates) sits out the cold, consoling herself with drink. Dates is a troubled soul. Ostracised by her peers after a job goes awry, and places a young girl in the hospital. Dates is desperate to make amends. Then, unexpectedly she’s handed a note about a job, which, she believes, gives her that much-needed chance of redemption.
She is summoned by renowned barrister Quentin Quinby. Quinby’s bad reputation precedes him. He legally represents many of the dangerous villains in London. A man with connections, a libertine, a rumoured practitioner of the dark arts. A man of privilege and education. A man who believes people should know their place, a man whose foppish entitlement, set against Dates’s council estate upbringing, displays all the ugliness of class distinction. There is no love lost between Dates and Quinby. But Dates needs this job, and as much as she loathes Quinby’s vile misogyny, it's a necessary evil she needs to put up with.
Quinby employs her to travel to north-east Wales, to the small village of Ysceifiog. Once there, Dates is to meet up with a man called Eves and his partner Casey and escort a friend of Quinby’s back to London. A simple enough job, which Dates accepts without question, believing she finally has that chance of redemption.