The daughter of a warrior-king seeks induction into the wonders of the written word; a grieving widow refuses to part from her husband's heart; a modern-day seal wife loses the one magical object that could free her to return to her own life.

Drawing on years of research into chronicles, ballads, manuscripts, and the half-remembered lore of Scotland's past, Mairi Kidd brings to life women both historical and imagined, their voices resonant with courage, cunning, and rebellion. Whether confronting the constraints of marriage, the dangers of clan feuds, or the injustices of the law, these characters refuse to be mere footnotes in the tales of men.

This unforgettable collection draws together nine new short stories of survival, rebellion, and magic by the acclaimed author of The Specimens and Poor Creatures, Mairi Kidd.

Mairi Kidd graduated with a First in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh and has worked in books ever since. Her novel The Specimens - a retelling of the 1828 crimes of Burke and Hare - was Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month and the short stories from her collection We Are All Witches formed the basis for the award-winning 'Heal and Harrow' project. Her novel Poor Creatures is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became the author of Frankenstein, and Newes of Witches is a tale of courage and women quietly resisting the systems built to break them, set against the backdrop the 17th-century witch hunts. She lives by the sea in Edinburgh with her illustrator husband and their rescue cat.