a 1970 children witch book about a tiny witch and her aunts

True to the spirit of a Mary Stewart heroine, Mary decides to go back to rescue Tib, which leads to further adventure and dangers as Mary releases all of the animals, breaks the transformation spell and flees Endor College. She does manage to return to Red Manor, only to find that the cat Tib has been kept captive at the College. The story is not unremittingly bleak or scary for young readers: there is humour in places, for example the Harrods Helibroom, and the way in which everything Mary says is misinterpreted or misunderstood so that it is believed that her parents are powerful Gormbridge witches rather than Cambridge scientists and broomstick-flying and invisibility are shown to be exciting and wondrous.īut then Mary makes a sinister discovery about animals that have been ‘transformed’ and begins to wonder if she will be allowed to leave Endor.

The ill-wishing of the spells is underlined by the sourness of the rhymes used in the spells: nursery-rhymes that ‘slipped somehow, so that the result was not ordinary, or even nice at all.’ Immediately, ‘the little broomstick gave a leap, a violent twist, a kick like the kick of a pony’ and Mary and Tib are transported by flying broomstick to Endor College, school of witchcraft. Endor is no Hogwarts: Madam Mumblechook believes that Mary has come to enrol at the school to learn skills such as ‘Turning milk sour, blighting turnips, making the cows go dry’. While sweeping up leaves with a small broom, Mary accidentally smears the broom in the juice of a fly-by-night flower. The writer effortlessly builds up an atmosphere of magic and suspense, creating an expectation of magic that is fulfilled soon afterwards. Zebedee also tells Mary of the folklore surrounding the flower, including:Īnd ’tis said that in the olden days the witches sought her from the corners of the Black Mountains, and from the place where the old city was and there’s now naught but a pool o’ water. The cat leads Mary to a clump of unusual purple flowers that she shows to Zebedee the gardener at Red Manor, who names both the cat (Tib) and the blooms (fly-by-night). Lonely Mary’s melancholy is echoed by nature: ‘Everywhere was damp, and decay, and the end of summer’ but then a small black green-eyed cat appears, and adventure and magic begin. (which is deliciously reminiscent of Camilla’s opening line in My Brother Michael). Nothing, thought Mary, nothing could ever happen here Mary, we discover, has missed out on staying with cousins while her parents are abroad, and instead must stay with elderly, deaf Great-Aunt Charlotte in rural Shropshire, a fate which causes Mary to lament that Nothing could have been more depressing, she thought to be plain, to be ten, and to be alone, staring out of her bedroom window on a grey autumn day, and to be called Mary Smith. Published in 1971, the book features beautiful illustrations by Shirley Hughes, the award-winning illustrator and writer.Įven her name was plain. Mary Stewart’s first published book for children is called The Little Broomstick.

A 1970 children witch book about a tiny witch and her aunts