Description

William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-82) was an English historical novelist born in Manchester. He first trained as a lawyer but soon found the legal profession held no attraction for him. After briefly trying the publishing business, he devoted himself to journalism and literature, his first success as a writer coming with the publication of Rookwood in 1834 which featured the highwayman Dick Turpin as its leading character. 39 further novels followed, the last appearing in 1881, the year before his death. The Lancashire Witches is the only one of Ainsworth's novels to have remained continuously in print, and is considered by many to be his best work. It was first serialised in the Sunday Times newspaper in 1848 with book publication the following year. The novel is based on the true story of the Pendle witches who were executed in 1612 for supposedly causing harm by witchcraft, and Ainsworth relied largely on the official account of the Lancashire witch trials written by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, first published in 1613 as The Wonderful Dicoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. Potts himself makes an appearance in Ainsworth's novel as a "scheming and self-serving lawyer." The novel consists of four parts, each written as a third-person narrative, and is subtitled A Romance of Pendle Forest.