Tabitha Stanmore's text offers an intriguing dive into the world of magical practitioners in medieval and early modern Europe. Stanmore brings us face-to-face with the practitioners of folk magic—those who weren’t quite witches but were still deeply involved in the spiritual and practical lives of their communities. The book focuses on their fascinating range of activities, from finding lost objects to healing ailments with herbs, and even helping people navigate love and fortune. It also dispells some myths about the persecution of 'cunning folk' and the stigma surrounding witchcraft.

This was a lovely book with excellent research about the kinds of magical practice that often gets overlooked when talking about historical magic practice. Everyone always wants to hear about the witches and the witch trials and I find this kind of simple/folk magic incredibly fascinating. Great book!

Cunning Folk is an interesting look at the historical value of magic practitioners outside of the realms of fictional witchcraft. It provided a variety of accounts created from diaries and court records. I found the work to be tight knit although there were places where I kept losing focus. But the book is divided into manageable chapters and can provide good info.

I reviewed this for the Spectator.

Full review https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/when-the-local-wizard-was-the-repository-of-all-wisdom/

What do you do when one of your possessions goes missing? Search behind the sofa cushions? Ask other members of the household where they put it? If you lived in Renaissance England, there’s a chance you would have consulted a local magician for advice, especially if the lost item was of value. In the absence of police to investigate theft or insurance to cover a loss, a wizard tracing the item seemed like a fair choice. Nor was it the entirely foolish idea it might seem now. In a time when belief in magic was widely held, making it known that a magician was on the case could prompt a guilty party to come forward.

In Tabitha Stanmore’s Cunning Folk, these figures played an important social and cultural role in Britain, from the medieval to early modern period.

An informative, yet captivating dive into magick and those who practiced during the Fourteenth century and onwards. Full of interesting facts and information, this book is a must have for your witchy toolkit. A lot of books that are written about the history of witches, or people who believe in spiritual practices such as witchcraft tend to drag or become boring, but Tabitha Stanmore's approach was light and informative. I recommend this book to anyone who wants answers about Witchcraft history and magick especially involving European witchcraft.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free book in exchange for an honest review.


I love short history books and this one is no exception - Cunning Folk is an enchanting read (pun intended) about magic and practical magic in history. Told in a way that immerses the reader in the history shows cunning folk was an incredible read for fans of magic and the mystical.Some parts made it read a little bit slowly for me, but this book was an amazing read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been intrigued by Cunning Folk for a long time because they seemed to be the lesser of two evils in medieval times. At least according to the laypeople, the Church, and the Royalty. Tabitha Stanmore's book sheds a little light on what these people did.

While I appreciate the value of anecdotes, something that I found frustrating was that the vast majority of this book was just that. I know it would have been difficult to complete research for this particular topic. After all, cunning folk were not witches, "doctors," or barber-surgeons. There could not have been much reason to transcribe their exploits during a time when literacy was mostly reserved for men of the cloth.

Stanmore was able to take court transcripts from civil suits brought against cunning people after a failure in their skills. This tells us what the cunning folk were hired to do and how they fared in that regard. What I really wanted to find out was more about their methods. In my mind, I liken the cunning folk of the past to the curanderos of the present with a little Hoodoo thrown in. Cunning Folk were not seen as an enemy of the church and it was vital for them to stay that way to survive. As a result, they appear to be quite selective in the cases in which they would help. Involving themselves in a lost cause could not only bring down their reputation, but it could also lead to civil suits or worse. People have always sought a scapegoat and the line between cunning folk and witch was pretty thin.

Overall, a good read if you want some summaries of what areas cunning folk worked in. But if you're looking for specificity in methods, you will have to look elsewhere.

Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic by Tabitah Stanmore, is a deeply researched exploration of a particular sort of magic in the medieval/early modern era. Full of illustrative anecdotes mostly from primary sources (particularly court cases), Stanmore does an excellent job in showing how “Our focus on witches and the sensationalism of witch trials makes us forget that there was a whole host of magical practitioners … not every person who practiced magic was a witch.” The specific cases are often fascinating, and while I had a few quibbles with some elements of structure and style, the text makes for a mostly engaging and always informative take on a relatively unfamiliar aspect of history, at least among non-historians.

Stanmore notes in the intro that “people tended to put magical practitioners into two distinct categories: those who used magic out of spite to harm others [witches] and those who used it as a tool to positively affect the world around them [cunning folks]. The latter were generally viewed positively (or at least as “morally neutral”) because they provided a variety of services to their communities, which leads to the other name for this type of non-witchcraft practice: “service magic.” This may seem odd, especially as in popular culture we tend to think all supernatural practice was branded as “witchcraft” and that even a wart, a mumbled aside, or simply being an old woman living alone could get one sent to the fires, but Stanmore’s research shows that only a “handful” of cunning folk were tried as witches and in fact, their business increased during the peak witchcraft hysterias in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Following the introduction, Stanmore structures her text via nine sections detailing the various jobs cunning folks did, including finding lost goods, getting someone to fall in love with you, healing, and divining the future. Each of these is vividly illustrated by multiple specific cases drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources, with a number of them being court records due to a dispute. Some of these anecdotes involve regular folks, such as a woman who employed a cunning person to find a lost spoon. But the customers of cunning folk ran the social gamut, from commoners and the poor to churchwardens and priests to nobility to kings and queens. Customers contracted to find lost household items, help them win in a trial by combat (charms sewn underneath the armor), kill their husband/wife, help them find treasure (rarely successful apparently), find a thief (more successful perhaps) and so forth.

By grounding so much of the text in these true-life examples, Stanmore avoids a too-abstract academic discussion of the topic and also humanizes those involved so the reader sees them as real people (which they are of course) expressing the same real-person, real-world fears and desires we do today: jealousy, a yearning for love, hope for economic stability, grief, fear of a child’s death. This goes a long way toward preventing readers from viewing the medieval people as gullible or silly for believing in magic.

While Stanmore offers up some of the specific spells, magic words, charms, and activities employed as “magic”, what is often more interesting than the magical trappings is how the cunning folk relied on knowledge of basic human nature, employing psychology when possible. For instance, the ordeal of eating was meant to find out who amongst several suspects was a thief. A piece of cheese was cut into chunks with a charm on each, then the suspects ate their piece. The primary suspect would go last or near last, and the assumption was their nervousness would make it difficult for them to swallow the cheese.

I had, as noted, a few minor issues, one of which is no fault of Stanmore’s — the fact that we often get the description of a particular case or event but not its resolution, due simply to the reality that while the disputes often appeared in records the verdicts/sentences did not. I’m sure this was as frustrating for the author as it is for the readers. The other issues were far from deal-breakers but did detract a bit from my reading experience. One was that while I appreciated as stated above the grounding of the text in real-world examples, at times it did feel like a compendium of anecdotes rather than a unified non-fiction narrative. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more intervening commentary from Stanmore in between the examples to break them up and add some context. That also would have allowed perhaps for a livelier style in terms of language, metaphor, etc. Another quibble was how Stanmore was overly coy I felt (YMMV) about whether or not the cunning folk actually performed magic or not. And so we get lines like, “We can only speculate whether Watsall really had the ability to conjure demons,” or “It is not my place to say whether the magic practice by cunning folk was real . . .” or “Even more exiting — to me at least — is the advice given out by TikTokkers and others who have used the [magic] method and found that it worked.” I’m all for the mindset of medieval people believed the magic was real, but, and perhaps it’s churlish of me, but I’m pretty sure Watsall could not in fact conjure demons.

A more engaging style, a bit more sense of narrative, a less playful “was it magic?” references, and a better sense of resolution as to many of the examples (again, this last not Stanmore’s fault) would have made for a more enjoyable read. But Cunning Folk is certainly an informative read, one bolstered by a plethora of real-world examples dug up by clearly meticulous research (there’s also an excellent works consulted list for future reading) into a topic often overlooked by the general public. And Stanmore deserves lots of credit for that.

I have many friends who are long fascinated by magic, witches, and related things- I was always on the fence. However, Cunning Folk was an absolute delight and kept me reading cover to cover. If I’m being honest, it was the opening story of a woman who needed magicians to help her find missing spoons that drew me in- how many times have we all torn our homes apart looking for something?)

I love that Stanmore focuses on the daily lives of regular people, because it felt far more relatable than women potentially flying several hundred kilometres to meet with the devil. (I totally understand why people are interested in the latter, but it just feels like the extreme.) Cunning Folk has so many examples of the types of situations where you might turn to magic to help, like illness, fertility issues, lost items, and more. And interestingly it was not limited to one social class or group- noble and royals turning to magic is not often discussed.

This is also an extremely readable book; it might be non-fiction but it kept me just as interested as a novel. Stanmore has an easy tone and provides needed explanations without it feeling like a textbook. If you are looking for a fun history book for the summer, Cunning Folk needs to be on your to-read list!

Cunning Folk, life in the age of practical magic by Tabatha Stanmore is about life in the middle ages and there opinion and belief in magic. Whether it be tea leaf reading conjuring the answers with bread a mirror and many other different rituals the fact was there was a big belief in magic at that time. People from all walks of life spent their money and all their hope on many different types of conjurers astrologers and in some cases even the local vicar The reason we still answer the question what’s your sign on dating apps is because sometimes it even worked. In some cases a rational thinker could figure out the trick but there was still those cases that left the eyewitness is baffled. I loved this book and found it so truly interesting and wish I could write a great review to convince others to read this book but I think like me those who love the strange and different will definitely read this I love how in the book the author says that she doesn’t know if she believes they really had magic because she wasn’t there which I think is a fair humble statement and shows her intelligence. A lot of people would scorff and dismiss any belief in ferry‘s phase conjure‘s psychics ET see but that in my opinion shows a lack of intelligence such as passing opinions on those who lived at a time we have no clue what it was like and yet we are so confident we know what they should’ve done and how we would’ve done it so much better and that’s just ridiculous. Whether they had magic or not the book is still interesting to read and fun to ponder and just know you can laugh but you weren’t there. I love this book and definitely recommend it they have things in the book that are easy to figure out and then bears the stories that are unexplainable like the 12-year-old and the mirror he even have those using magic to try and gain romance kill the romantic partner and much more this book is just so so good. I want to thank bloomsbury academic for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This was a slow but entertaining look into the history of how magic has been viewed throughout history.

This book is interesting with a but.
The author did loads of work to get the history of using "cunning folk" and the stories are good but then you do not get what happen.

For example, back in the day a lady lost her silverware and silverware was a really big deal when you did not have many possessions. She searches for a magical helper to help find them. It tells of her journey trying several different people and then when she finds one that says they can help..the story ends.

That bugs me. Several of the stories are like this. So it's getting a just okay rating.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

loved this view into historical accounts of cunning folk and their interactions with the community around them.

I never really thought about the fact that more palm readers weren't burned at the stake. Ok, hear me out.

You will often read or see in historical media about a king going to see a psychic or someone who can put together a "special" potion. These people did exist. So why weren't they tried and executed as witches? Finally, Tabitha Stanmore is here to explain why in her book, Cunning Folk. See, they weren't tried as witches because they weren't witches. They were cunning folk and, at worst, their activities were frowned upon and at best, they were actively sought by many people.

Stanmore drops us into the time period of medieval and early modern Europe. We start off with a woman in London trying to find her spoons. Sure, you and I aren't worried about losing spoons but back in the day this was no bueno. Spoons could be worth at lot and eating soup with your hands is a real pain. Stanmore follows this woman as she tries to find the right cunning folk to solve her problem because there are many different types. Don't worry, the book also looks at some famous people who tried to kill other famous people.

There is a sole issue with the book which is not Stanmore's fault. That woman and her spoons is the perfect example. We know she tried to find them and asked cunning folk but we get no resolution because the records just stop. This happens with a lot of the stories in the book and it does rob the narrative of a little magic (pun intended!). Stanmore's research is impeccable and there is nothing she can do about it. The information just doesn't exist anymore. Even still, this is well worth the read and it's a lot of fun.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing.)

An excellent deep-dive into the fascinating history of cunning folk across Europe, particularly England. Unlike other 'historical' accounts of the time, Stanmore is quick to note the differences between cunning folk and witches. This confusion is one found in many neo-pagan and modern occult books, which is a shame because it has infiltrated the pagan community so deeply, yet isn't based on any truth. Cunning folk were highly respected and completely separate from witches, so much so that very few cunning folk were ever tried as witches during the Burning Times. Any trial records for cunning folk are almost entirely for crimes outside of witchcraft, such as fraud, conspiracy to commit murder, or other unlawful acts. Stanmore does an excellent job separating cunning folk from witches using historical documentation and records from across Europe. Each chapter has stories interwoven throughout, connecting the magic back to the needs and desires of the time. I enjoyed her perspective, as well as her educated insight into the culture of cunning folk and how they were perceived throughout history.

Stanmore is truly an expert in her field and her research should not be taken lightly. I wish more modern pagan authors would turn to real historical documents instead of continuing to perpetuate misinformation. If you are interested in learning the real history of magic-practicing folk, this is the book for you. Highly recommend!

I love history and magic, and this book seemed right up my alley. While it isn’t a book on actually how to practice magic, it is chock full of history on how people used practitioners back in medieval times. it was extremely interesting and educational. I absolutely enjoyed it.

This was an absolutely fascinating read! It teaches us quite a few things on the cunning folk and the way of life in a time where it was very common and accepted. We think back and that’s not something that would first come to mind. I really enjoyed it.

what it means to be a human in todays age and the midevil ages are completely different. Magic and self- realization are what keep us moving and connected. I LOVE THIS BOOK!

—Thank you to NetGalley and the publidher for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is an amazing source of information. I feel so lucky to have read this. Because this is both educational, interesting and entertaining.
I’m sure this will be a quiet handy book.

A conversational, yet informative look at an under-examined area of social history, Tabitha Stanmore's "Cunning Folk" is sure to be appreciated by both lay readers and history students interested in the role of folk magic and religion in the Elizabethan period.