How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women

The book opens with a poem entitled “In Memoriam” by Len Pennie, a Scottish poet. The poem mixes English and Scots as it laments the loss of many women, but ensures that their spirit endures, and that justice for the crimes against them is still being sought. The book’s two authors, Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, then introduce themselves. Claire was first drawn to the history of persecution of witches in Scotland when she learned about Sir George Mackenzie, who was the head of prosecution in the mid-late 1600s, and known for imprisoning several hundred Protestants. Sir Mackenzie also believed that the amount of trials being held against witches surely outnumbered the actual number of witches that existed, and aimed to minimize the amount of false trials taking place.

Learning of some of the experiences of these women inspired Claire to want to learn more. She was out walking one day and noticed that not only were there no statues celebrating Scottish women to be found, but there were not even proper commemorations of the injustices they have faced. Outside Edinburgh Castle, where many executions took place, there exists only a plaque which refers to these women as “witches” when many of them were not.