The Elegant Witch Author:Robert Neill The cruelty and poverty of seventeenth-century England proved a fertile breeding ground for fanatical beliefs in the black arts of the supernatural, especially in witchcraft. — In the rural county of Lancashire, however, where the beautiful Margery Whitaker served as clerk to the King's justice, witchcraft was a thriving business for individuals ... more »highly skilled in murder . . . and Margery was rapidly becoming their most desired victim.« less