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I should say at the outset that Brooke Palmieri and I are friends, so this review will be somewhat biased. Just as the pandemic hit, we were drawing up plans for a queer anthology collection, but Covid put paid to it. Bargain Witch: Essays in Self-Initiation (Dopamine 2025, 282pp, p/bk) is a collection of autobiographical essays dealing with a wide range of subjects relating to Brooke’s journey into magic and queer relationality
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Go on any pagan or occult forum or social media platform, and at some point, inevitably, someone will assert that contemporary Witchcraft was, more or less, “made up” by Gerald Gardner. This was the conclusion drawn by Ronald Hutton in his 1999 book, Triumph of the Moon. Over the last two decades though, the story has changed, thanks largely to Philip Heselton’s careful investigation of the New Forest Coven in his books, In Search of the New Forest Coven and Witchfather. Thanks to Heselton, many of the members of this bohemian group have been identified, in particular, ‘Dafo’, Gardner’s friend, lover, and magical partner for 15 years.
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