{"id":59321,"date":"2026-03-16T16:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=59321"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:55:32","slug":"traitor-hunter-harriet-tyce-visits-sheffield-with-latest-novel-witch-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/traitor-hunter-harriet-tyce-visits-sheffield-with-latest-novel-witch-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Traitor hunter Harriet Tyce visits Sheffield with latest novel Witch Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Traitors star and million-copy-selling author Harriet Tyce completed a book signing in Meadowhall for her fifth novel, Witch Trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Tyce, 53, opens her novel with a graphic scene that she says she would ‘struggle’ to see on screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: “I do all my writing in bed, which isn\u2019t very good ergonomically, but I think it\u2019s because it feels like a safe space it doesn\u2019t freak me out as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite her fear of seeing her creation come to life, she said: “I\u2019d love a TV adaptation if it was done well, but I might find it quite frightening to watch some of the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author was a contestant on series four of BBC show The Traitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am as I am,” she said. “And it\u2019s a pressured environment and it\u2019s very hard to be anything other than the person you are.\u201d She joked that she wished the producers had not shown the now infamous breakfast scene but added: \u201cIt was an amazing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wouldn\u2019t necessarily call it fun, but extraordinary and fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witch Trial’s character Isobel honours Isobel Gowdie, who was prosecuted under witch trial legislation in the 1700s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Tyce said another factor in her characters’ creation was her MA in Creative Writing \u2013 Crime Fiction which she completed at the University of East Anglia. She believes she subconsciously took inspiration from witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins, who is reflected in her protagonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her writing and bibliography pay homage to her main inspirations Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if she was grateful for her time as a barrister, she said: \u201cI\u2019ve got a motto, which is that nothing is wasted, and that those years, and that experience is what\u2019s led for me to have the author career that I have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m grateful for all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussing what is next in 2026, she said: “What I\u2019m interested in possibly exploring is a follow up to Witch Trial, because there are some characters in it that I\u2019d very much like to know what happens next for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So, maybe revisiting the world 10 years later is what\u2019s sort of in my head, but don\u2019t hold me to that, because it might end up being something completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Traitors star and million-copy-selling author Harriet Tyce completed a book signing in Meadowhall for her fifth novel, Witch Trial. Ms Tyce, 53, opens her novel with a graphic scene that she says she would ‘struggle’ to see on screen. She said: “I do all my writing in bed, which isn\u2019t very good ergonomically, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5,132,166],"tags":[766,1097,12,1188],"class_list":["post-59321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-news","category-top-stories","category-top-story-2","tag-books","tag-meadowhall","tag-sheffield","tag-traitors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59321"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59435,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59321\/revisions\/59435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}