Cunning Folk. Life in the era of practical magic
Tabitha Stanmore
Vintage, 2024 (paperback), 275 p. ISBN 978-1-529-93156-3. € 17,99. GBP 10,99
Imagine: it is the 17th century and you’ve lost your spoons. You cant’t find them anywhere – maybe they were stolen. Where do you go to, to find you spoons back? Or when your child has a fever, or something else is wrong in your life? There is no police to turn to, no emergency hospital service. But there are magicians, cunning folk, fortune tellers.
In nine chapters Tabitha Stanmore describes real life cases from ‘the era of practical magic’, with a central theme: How to find thieves and lost goods. How to win at trial. How to find love. How to get rich quick. How to gain a kingdom (because it were not only the poor and ‘common’ people seeking the help of magicians). And in the ‘conclusions’ at the end of the book, she draws parallels to our time: the book The Secret. Or The Manifestation Method, a TikTok hit.
Reading the chapters shows us how the lives of people from earlier ages did not differ that much from our own. What drove people to seek out guidance and help from ‘cunning folk’, what did it cost, and did it help? A fascinating read!
