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Writing Welsh Witches
31 October 2025
Writer and historian Rebecca Thomas explores the witchcraft in Welsh literature, and takes a look at two brand new additions to this long-standing fascination with the woman as ‘witsh.’
Rebecca Thomas is a senior lecturer in medieval history at Cardiff University, a Welsh-language novelist and essayist. She has published two historical novels for young adults: Dan Gysgod y Frenhines (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2022) and Y Castell ar y Dŵr (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2023). In 2022-23 she was appointed Welsh Writer in Residence for Bannau Brycheiniog National Park to work on a creative project responding to the climate and nature emergencies. This resulted in Anturiaethau’r Brenin Arthur, published by Gwsag Carreg Gwalch in 2024. Her first novel for adults, Y Tŵr, was published by Sebra in April 2025. Her first essay, Cribo’r Dragon’s Back, won the inaugural O’r Pedwar Gwynt Essay Prize in 2021 and she has subsequently published further essays in O’r Pedwar Gwynt and in edited collections such as Hi/Hon (Gwasg Honno, 2024).
Writer and historian Rebecca Thomas explores the witchcraft in Welsh literature, and takes a look at two brand new additions to this long-standing fascination with the woman as ‘witsh.’
For this Writers at Work interview, we asked historical fiction author Rebecca Thomas where it all started, and which essential reading shaped her writing life.
