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Back The Darkest Shore Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Karen Brooks
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. EXPLANATORY NOTE
  7. PART ONE
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. PART TWO
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. PART THREE
  45. Thirty-Six
  46. Thirty-Seven
  47. Thirty-Eight
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Forty-Eight
  58. Forty-Nine
  59. Fifty
  60. Fifty-One
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. PART FOUR
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Epilogue: Autumn 1706
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. GLOSSARY
  75. LIST OF CHARACTERS
  76. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Travelling with my husband, Stephen, and our best mates, Kerry Doyle and Peter Goddard, we stayed in the port town of Anstruther (called Anster by locals), in The Boathouse right on the harbour. Looked after by our lovely host, Blane, we stayed for four days and explored the coast, travelled to the Isle of May (where we experienced one of the remarkable and rapid changes of extreme weather upon the Firth of Forth), the beautiful St Andrew’s, and walked the coastal paths between Anster, Pittenweem, Cellardyke (called by its original name of Silverdyke in the novel), Crail, St Monan’s etc. and generally did intense on the ground research. But it wasn’t until we went to the Fisheries Museum in Anster and I spoke to someone in authority there that I began to learn not only about the Herring Lasses (who were predominant in the 1800s and early 1900s), but about how the stain and shame of witchcraft and what had happened in Pittenweem (and other areas around Fife) back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries still affects people today. When I asked about witches and witchcraft, this person I interviewed immediately went into a vehement denial, becoming incredibly defensive and telling me it was all rubbish! There were no witches. Ever. I said to him, ‘Well, if that’s the case, how come you’re selling this book?’ and held up Leonard Low’s marvellous The Weem Witch. I was so taken aback by the (until then very nice) gentleman’s hostility, I don’t really recall the specifics of his answer, but that he mumbled something about it being written by a local so he had no choice.

As you can imagine, part of me was a bit despondent to think maybe there was no story involving witches (but hey, I consoled myself, you write fiction, make it up), the other part of me was determined to get to the bottom of why my question had provoked such a reaction.

Along with Stephen, Kerry and Peter, we then walked to Pittenweem and hunted and asked questions. Not only did we find the loveliest of towns — the only one in the area still committed to fishing — and people, but we found witches.