Diary of a Witch

Set in the early 17th century, Diary of a Witch is a raw and haunting novel based on a four hundred year old manuscript discovered in 2012 buried in the walls of a Scottish farmhouse. The secret diary of Elspeth MacGregor, a midwife accused of being a witch, is the first female chronicle of “The Burning Times.” Imprisoned in a frigid, rat-infested tolbooth in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Elspeth MacGregor confesses a story untold in the annals of time: the true story of midwives, healers, herbalists and common women who practiced the "old religion," revered the earth, and exulted in their sexuality. So formidable were these women, so threatening to the patriarchal society surrounding them, that they were terrorized by a ruling class hell-bent on eradicating them. Diary of a Witch unravels the knot of time and transplants the reader to the squalor and beauty of Elizabethan London. Elspeth’s narrative weaves in and out of her childhood, her marriage at fifteen to a player in Shakespeare’s company, her unbounded love for her daughter, and the torture and humiliation of her witch trial. In the graveyard of her filthy cell, a breathless hope sings through Elspeth’s words—will she escape her fate?

Set in the early 17th century, Diary of a Witch is a raw and haunting novel based on a four hundred year old manuscript discovered in 2012 buried in the walls of a Scottish farmhouse. The secret diary of Elspeth MacGregor, a midwife accused of being a witch, is the first female chronicle of “The Burning Times.” Imprisoned in a frigid, rat-infested tolbooth in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Elspeth MacGregor confesses a story untold in the annals of time: the true story of midwives, healers, herbalists and common women who practiced the "old religion," revered the earth, and exulted in their sexuality. So formidable were these women, so threatening to the patriarchal society surrounding them, that they were terrorized by a ruling class hell-bent on eradicating them. Diary of a Witch unravels the knot of time and transplants the reader to the squalor and beauty of Elizabethan London. Elspeth’s narrative weaves in and out of her childhood, her marriage at fifteen to a player in Shakespeare’s company, her unbounded love for her daughter, and the torture and humiliation of her witch trial. In the graveyard of her filthy cell, a breathless hope sings through Elspeth’s words—will she escape her fate?

Colleen is an author, screenwriter and conflict resolution mediator. Her first novel The Betrayal of Innocence is available on Amazon. In December 2000, she accompanied a journalist friend to Dornoch, Scotland to cover Guy Ritchie and Madonna’s wedding. On the edges of the rain soaked town, Colleen came upon the rock that marks the place where Janet Horne, the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland, was burnt alive in 1727. A local woman explained that Janet Horne had been stripped, smeared with tar, rolled around the town in a barrel and then set on fire. Walking back to her hotel, the sky darkened; and the damp moved through Colleen like a ghost; and for the first time she heard the tormented whisperings of Elspeth MacGregor. Thus, Diary of a Witch was born.