Scarlett Dunmore: Scotland’s Dance with Witchcraft

“Double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.”

Scotland has a dark history. One filled with ghost tales and witchcraft. A history so rich that it inspired Shakespeare’s Macbeth in which the prophecy of three witches triggers a chain of events. A narrative not too dissimilar perhaps to the great witch hunts of Scotland.

Back in the mid-1500’s and 1600’s, anything ‘unusual’ was classed as work of the devil. A stroke of good luck, a sudden bout of illness, a fall, even a rainstorm. All the devil’s doing. Soon, paranoia, fear and hatred towards thy neighbour resulted in almost four thousand executions. Mostly women, and almost always on the account of a witness. Often a neighbour, a friend or a relative.

If witches did exist, then they knew how and where to hide during this time, and who to trust.

How to Survive a Horror Sequel is loosely based on this idea of witches hiding among us, in a place rich with history, community and ancestry. When researching where to set the second book in the series, I had to turn to my own country, to a small village only thirty minutes from where I live. Culross. A labyrinth-esque town filled with dark alleyways and cobbled streets. A network of passages, many leading to the town square, called Mercat Cross. For book two, the fictional village of Glendale was largely influenced by the town of Culross, which is heavily linked to one of the largest witch hunts in the country. It’s a place where witchcraft hid in the nooks and crannies of the cobbled lanes and gabled cottages. And like the layout of Culross, the fictional village of Glendale is comprised of a series of passages, many spilling out to one central meeting point: the clocktower.

The research behind How to Survive a Horror Sequel involved not only a stroll through Culross and its darkest corners, but a dive into the library archives, including academic texts, articles and blogs by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Historic Environment Scotland. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 may have abolished the hunting and naming of ‘witches’ in Great Britain, but many still lived in fear after that.

How to Survive a Horror Sequel is a story that thrives on superstition, paranoia and fear. And, Charley’s PTSD from book one adds to this cauldron of narrative atmosphere, with her constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering if and when the Harrogate Halloween Killer will resurface for another ‘stab’ at revenge.

But who will get to her first – the witches or the killer from Book One?

How to Survive a Horror Sequel was published by Little Tiger on 4 September 2025