Witches

The most unexpected bestseller of 1926 was a book called
Th e History oj Witchcraft and Demonology by the Revd.
Montague Summers. Issued by Routledge and Kegan Paul as
part oftheir History oJCivilisation, it was an obviously serious
work, full of Latin quotations, lengthy footnotes, and a
comprehensive bibliography. What startled the reviewers
was that the author clearly believed every word he wrote
about the 'enormous wickedness' of witches, warlocks and
devil worshippers. H . G. Wells was so incensed by the book
that he launched a vituperative attack on it in the Sunday
Express. The Times, equally disapproving, contented itself
with the comment that 'the more Mr Summers gives proof
of general ability, of scholarship and of wide reading, the
more the suspicion deepens that a mystification is in progress
and that he is amusing himself at our expense'