As we gear up for Halloween this week, BooksfromScotland took the time to speak to Alice Tarbuck, author of A Spell in the Wild, about her book and about everyday magic.

A Spell in the Wild
By Alice Tarbuck
Published by Two Roads

Your book A Spell in the Wild is having its paperback release this month. How have you enjoyed its reception with readers since its hardback release last year?

Perhaps the most surprising and wonderful thing has been the number of people who have read the book chapter-by-chapter, and followed through the whole year with it. I think that’s genuinely incredible, to think that people have used the book as a monthly comfort – I’ve had so many people reach out to tell me about the ways that following along with it has changed how they interact with nature in the world.

A Spell in the Wild is part-memoir, part-primer, part-history on magic and witchcraft. What precipitated your decision in writing the book?

The book naturally synthesised out of my doctoral research, and my love of academic research more generally, my private practice, and my experiences of the world – it felt natural to combine all three into something that I hoped would change and broaden the conversation around magic, witchcraft and the esoteric – something with robust research that nevertheless didn’t require you to be any sort of ‘expert’ to access the world you already live in!

It’s very interesting that in the introduction to the book that tell the readers you didn’t think to consider yourself a modern witch until someone pointed it out to you. Why do you think that was the case?

I think often we are still encouraged to believe that witchcraft is an exclusive, initiatory practice, which only certain people can participate in, and only after long training. It turns out of course that this isn’t true at all, but I am very aware that many people still see this model in culture. Its one of the reasons that, with Claire Askew, I teach witchcraft courses – to show people that this knowledge is accessible, its okay, its allowed.

Autumn has arrived now. What kind of practices will you be following in this seasonal change?

Some are very small – more soups and stews, fairy lights, but its also gearing up for Samhain, or Hallowe’en, which is considered ‘the witches’ new year’, so I take that seriously in terms of letting things go from my life that I wish to be rid of, and letting things in that I want to invite.

What do you recommend as practices, as engagements with the natural world, for those who are starting out?

I recommend just opening your eyes to the world – picking up fallen leaves, noticing when the moon is full (an app can help with that) and even just taking more nature photos – whatever opens your eyes!

There’s a practicality in your book, a recognition of what’s possible in any and all environments, to root magic in the everyday. Why is that important to you?

As someone with a chronic illness, and who is aware of how climate crisis affects our planet, and as someone who has grown up in a city, I think its easy when starting out to feel really alienated from the witchcraft of pristine landscapes so often put forward in books of the sort – I wanted to re-situate witchcraft, as occurring where we actually are!

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects? What else can readers look forward to?

I’m currently working on my first poetry collection!

What have been your favourite books to read this year? What are you looking forward to reading next?

I’m currently enjoying reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman – better late than never, and can’t wait to read Nina Mingya Powell’s Small Bodies of Water.

A Spell in the Wild by Alice Tarbuck is published by Two Roads, priced £9.99.