Black Wood Women

We know the truths men have forgotten…

Yorkshire. 1649. Caragh has hidden her true name and her Irish identity, and since her family fled Ireland in secret they have been proud to own land of their own in England. But one morning, Caragh’s father tells her that they must leave their beloved home as it is no longer safe for them to stay. That morning, Caragh hears shots fired. When she returns to the cottage, she finds her family murdered by Lemuel Lane, a wealthy Protestant who has taken it upon himself to rid the area of anyone with Catholic sympathies.

Caragh flees east, and comes to a forest, a coven of women, finding acceptance at last, little knowing that persecution stalks them, and their days in the forest are numbered.

Meanwhile, the last wolf in England hunts for prey. She is tired, hungry and alone – missing her pack and her mate, and anxious about the litter of pups she carries.

Reviews

Praise for the author

‘An astonishing novel’ The Independent

'Easily outdoes the original Heathcliff’ The Times Literary Supplement

'beautifully written and thrilling’ Yorkshire Post

'Visceral and unswerving’ Historia Magazine

About the author

Michael Stewart is a multi-award winning writer, born and brought up in Salford, who moved to Yorkshire in 1995 and is now based in Bradford. He was the winner of the BBC Alfred Bradley Award in 2003 and his plays have been performed in Bradford, Leeds, Manchester, London, and extensively throughout the country. His radio play Excluded was shortlisted for the Imison Award 2008. He was writer in residence at Theatre in the Mill in Bradford, and is now senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield, where he is the director of the Huddersfield Literature Festival and the editor of Grist Books.

His fiction has been published widely in anthologies and magazines, including Route, Leaf Books, Brand Magazine and Aesthetica. His debut novel, King Crow, was published in January 2011 by Bluemoose Books. It is the winner of the Guardian’s Not-the-Booker Award and has been selected as a recommended read for World Book Night.