This is an original and important study of the significance of witchcraft in English public life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In his lively account, Bostridge explores contemporary beliefs about witchcraft and shows how it remained a serious concern across the spectrum of political opinion. He concludes that its gradual descent into polite ridicule had as much to do with political developments as with the birth of reason.

Ian Bostridge is a young British tenor making his mark on the opera and concert stage. He sings full-time, but is also writing a book, provisionally entitled "Being a Singer", to be published by Methuen in 1998.