Ashes and Stones, a critique

In preparation for my attempt to write something using the story of the unfortunate women in my village, who got convicted and executed for witchcraft in my village, I am reading books, novels as well as non-fiction, to find a voice and a framing device.

One of the books I recently finished is Ashes and Stones, written by Allyson Shaw.

Allyson is an American woman living in North East Scotland. In this book, she journeys throughout Scotland to the various monuments to 'witches' and women who were accused and convicted of witchcraft.

The idea is brilliant. She travels from Orkney to the Borders and visits the monuments, which are not always easy to find. Though many of the memorials are dedicated to more than one woman, she concentrates on one of the alleged witches and writes a little about the history of that woman. That is quite nice, but she mixes it with writing about her own problems and there is where I part company. The descriptions are at time quite nice and poetic but, no offence, I am just not interested in Allyson's thoughts and miserations.

She also complains that all she can do is rely on secondary sources, as the National Library, where all the exciting documents are stored, will only let academics handle them. I do understand that frustration, but when she visits our local monument, the Maze, she doesn't seem to make any attempt to contact Lord Moncrieff, who envisaged this.

It was OK, but apart from using a monument to get in the story, it was no use for my purpose.