Bright I Burn Author : Molly Aitken ISBN-13 : 978 1 78689 838 8 Publisher : Canongate Guideline Price : £16.99 The story of Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny, the first Irish woman to be tried for witchcraft, is well-known. She was an Anglo Norman who lived between 1263 and some time later than 1325.
A moneylender, she married four times and inherited considerable wealth from her various husbands, all of whom died in fairly mysterious circumstances so that it was suspected that Alice had a hand in their demise. Although condemned, she escaped, apparently to England and Flanders. Her servant, Petronilla, was less fortunate, and was burned alive – it is to Molly Aitken’s credit that she decided to spare us a graphic account of her execution.
Alice Kyteler’s history has always fascinated us, not least because there have been relatively few witch trials (official anyway) in Ireland – and everyone loves a witch. Molly Aitken’s is not the first novel about Kyteler, but it is the first to be told from her point of view. The author is sympathetic to her first-person narrator, who is portrayed as beautiful, desirable and sensual.
There is much lyrical description of nature, herbs, flowers and scents. Alice is sensitive to her surroundings, and Aitken’s lusciously poetic style reflects this perfectly, in prose that is rhythmical and often mesmerising. Alice’s love for her son William is convincingly depicted, as is her strong attraction for some of her husbands – especially th.
