At approximately 9 a.m. on the morning of 29th January 1607, a catastrophic flood hit the coastline of Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire and South Wales. Over two thousand people drowned: homes were lost, livestock swept away, the entire village of Brean in Somerset destroyed. Over two hundred square miles of land lay underwater. The sea travelled as far inland as Glastonbury Tor, some fourteen miles from the coast. At Kingston Seymour, near Bristol, the village church bears a mark which shows the flood reached twenty-five feet at its height.

Eyewitness accounts from the time describe the sea moving ‘faster than a greyhound could run’, of ‘mighty hilles of water’ and ‘some fog or mist coming in with great swiftness’. It was these accounts, and the research they inspired, that formed the argument put forward in 2002 of the flood being a tsunami. Professor Simon Haslett of Bath Spa University and Australian geologist Ted Bryant of the University of Wollongong found evidence of soil types, coastal erosion and boulder deposits all suggesting the water had travelled very quickly and with great force. Their research is the subject of a fascinating Timewatch documentary ‘The Killer Wave’ in 2005, which can still be viewed on YouTube.

For the benefit of my story, I have woven the tsunami theory alongside other seventeenth century narratives, namely those of superstition and witchcraft. The climate at this time was experiencing a cooling period known as the ‘Little Ice Age’, which meant extreme weather events – storms, droughts, cold winters, floods – were more frequent. It wasn’t uncommon for such events to be seen as punishment from God, and that something – or someone – was to blame.

In 1604, harming another person by ‘magic’ became a crime punishable by death. Although witch-hunts in the UK weren’t as widespread as in Europe, there were numerous accounts of witch trials in Somerset in the early 1600s. I found no evidence that King James I or the Essex-based witchfinder Matthew Hopkins visited Somerset during this time – that’s my invention. Yet both men’s views had a huge impact on how women – particularly the old, the sick, the slightly odd – were perceived during the seventeenth century and beyond. So I’ve included them in my story: perhaps I’ve put them on trial. That’s for you, the reader, to decide.