Book about witches casts its spell across the Atlantic

Author Barry Durham’s novel The Demdike Legacy, which reignites the spooky tale of the Pendle witches tried and hanged at Lancaster Castle in 1612, has just been published in the United States.

The Demdike Legacy, previously self published, has been re-published by American company Glannant Ty and is now available for worldwide distribution.

Barry says he came across the American specialist paranormal media company’s website while on the internet and decided to get in touch.

The grandad-of-three duly submitted his first novel, The Demdike Legacy, in which a murder in a quiet English village in Lancashire re-ignites a legacy of witchcraft thought to have died out 400 years before, when the Pendle Witches were hanged at Lancaster.

Barry from Chipping, near Garstang, said: “I’m thrilled.

“I submitted the manuscript for Demdike and they said they would do it and it now gives me a foothold in America. It just seemed to fit in with them.”

The Demdike Legacy combines modern-day detective work with historical witchcraft and old world spiritual practices in which the descendants of the Pendle Witches live on, secretly following the old ways and keeping quietly to themselves.

But it seems someone is intent on finishing the job started four centuries earlier.

As the death toll rises, the descendants of the original Pendle Witches are forced out of hiding and assist the police in hunting down the killer before they are completely wiped out.

Readers have praised the novel saying it is “…fantastically researched”, “….well-paced and exciting with a fascinating insight into the original Pendle Witches” and “gripping”.

Born in Manchester in 1947, Barry was educated at North Manchester Grammar School and Salford Technical College where he studied maths, physics and chemistry for a while before getting bored with applied mathematics and dropping out.

He was an insurance clerk for a few years and then tried his hand as a salesman, but his love of writing kept getting him into trouble as he was often found scribbling down ideas for stories when he should have been working.

After marrying his wife Barbara in 1968, Barry moved to the Preston area and he obtained the post of junior reporter on the Garstang Courier at “the ripe old age of 23”.

The past 40-odd years have seen Barry work for newspapers and other publications in the Lancashire area, as well as a stint as a press officer, and he has had several short stories and freelance articles published.

More recently he was an associate lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston where he taught newspaper and magazine design to post graduate level for a number of years until budget cuts forced his final retirement.

The Demdike Legacy is now available in both soft cover and ebook formats on Glannant Ty’s website (www.glannantty.com), Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, iBooks and from other online retailers.