England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot &‘The Discovery of Witchcraft' Philip C. Almond (I B Tauris, London and New York, 2011) 246pp., hardback, £54.50 ISBN 978 1 84885 793 3

Philip Almond of the University of Queensland here adds a ninth innovative study to his previously acclaimed works.  This is the first full-length account of the most famous work from the sixteenth - century on witchcraft.  Reginald Scot published his ‘The Discovery of Witchcraft' in1584, thirteen years before James VI produced his ‘Daemonologie'.  Scot was critical of the whole of matters occult, divinatory and esoteric.  The book had a great impact on English society and proved controversial.  Scot had supporters including Gabriel Harvey the poet but his opponents outnumbered his supporters.  In 1587 George Clifford in his ‘A Discourse of the Subtill Practises of Devilles' indirectly attacked Scot's work.  The comprehensiveness of Scot's work however made it an invaluable source for information about magic.

The book is pleasantly presented with full end-notes, a bibliography of monographs and articles in scholarly journals published in the U.K., U.S. and Europe both modern and contemporary with Scot, and a good index.  What a pity that the price will inhibit the general reader from purchasing a fascinating book on a fascinating subject.