AUTHOR Stacey Halls has returned home to Ratwenstall to meet readers and sign companies of her debut novel 'The Familiars'.

She visited the town's libary on Saturday to talk about her ‘bewitching’ first published book.

Her novel is based at Padiham’s Gawthorpe Hall in the run up to infamous 1612 trial of the Pendle Witches. 


Born in Rawtenstall and educated at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School the 29-year-old has been compared by magazine Cosmopolitan to one of her literary heroes Hilary Mantel whose historical epic Wolf Hall was dramatised on BBC TV.


Many of the characters in the novel are real-life figures, with the main character being Fleetwood Shuttleworth from Gawthorpe Hall.