Kayleigh Kavanagh is a disabled writer from the North-West of England. Growing up in the area, she learnt a lot about the Pendle Witches and launched her debut novel around their life story. Her main writing genres are fantasy and romance, but she loves stories in all formats and genres. Kayleigh hopes to one day be able to share the many ideas dancing around in her head with the world.
Her latest book is the historical fantasy, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches.
You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and Tiktok.
10 Things You Might Not Know About One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches
1. The book was originally meant to be set exactly two hundred years after the trials in 1812, but after the author learnt more about the time period, set it later for historical accuracy.
2. Schools were a big push by Queen Victoria, and this enabled a lot of women and the poorer populous to gain an education. William was originally meant to introduce the idea of schools to the north. However, when the book had to be set later than 1812, he then became someone in support of her movement who wanted to ensure even the poorest of his community could gain an education.
3. There were several campaigns to discredit midwives, despite their having much better results (compared to the doctors). Just like Claire experienced, the women were shown as incompetent and dangerous, even though the doctors had higher death rates. Repeated smear campaigns against the midwives eventually helped institute standardisation as expectant mothers (and fathers) chose hospitals as the ‘safer’ place to give birth. I think Claire would be both happy and unhappy about this, as the NHS was a dream of hers, and it keeps her women safe, but men being involved in the delivery process is something she would still be vehemently against.
4. The revival of the spiritualist movement in the late 1800s was key to the later Wicca religion. The two are both credited with the spiritual movements we see today, and the encouragement towards alternative healing, which is primarily focused on foods and herbs. The remedies the cunning folk (Demdike and Chattox) used to use, and were accused of witchcraft for.
5. The cunning folk were very similar to shamanic healers in that they created ‘natural remedies’ from the earth and what was available to them, and helped with healing spiritual matters. From melancholy and low spirits (what we would now recognise as depression) to removing and fighting invading spirits and demons. They were a jack of all trades and considered vital to the community. Until they weren’t. Supposed demonic possessions did rise in their absence though…
6. Demdike is still believed to haunt the places she lived and died, and this occultist belief informed the book and made me think, ‘why might she still be around’.
7. Chattox and Demdike were considered rivals in life, but by modern standards, they would be considered ‘sister witches,’ and this filtered into the novel, making them more like sisters who irritated one another rather than arch-enemies.
8. Some people think Device was a misrecorded name, and their surname was actually Davies (a popular Northern surname). Hence, why the midwife is named Claire Davies.
9. Lord James was initially meant to be a reincarnated James Device, or Nowell, but this idea was later scrapped. Instead, James was hinted as being Yana’s youngest sibling in the epilogu,e who was born after the cleansing ritual, and Nowell is off suffering in his afterlife.
10. Chattox accidentally spoils big reveals because she’s terrible at reading the room despite her gifts of foresight.
Title: One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches
Author: Kayleigh Kavanagh
Publication Date: September 29, 2025
Pages: 400
Genre: Historical Paranormal Fantasy
Formats: Kindle
Demdike and Chattox, famed witches of Pendle Forest, might be dead, but they’re not gone. Bound to their bloodline, they’ve spent the past two and a half centuries watching over their descendants, waiting for when they’ll be needed.
When 14 year old Yana comes into her psychic abilities and inherits the ‘eyes of the Chattox family’, she can see the long-dead witches, as well as an encroaching evil. But even with this foreknowledge, she’s trapped by marriage interviews and being unable to see her own future, and more importantly, whoever her future husband will be.
Demdike’s healing gifts are alive and working in Claire, a mid-30s midwife well renowned for her skills and holding her tongue. The Secrets of Pendle are safe with her and her midwives. However, when surgeons looking to make standardisation the norm encroach on her territory, she soon realises how, even a respected woman is vulnerable in a patriarchal system.
The two descendants must come together to protect the ones they love from an ancient evil, all whilst balancing their lives and the cruelties of being a woman in a man’s world. Set in late 1800s NW England, this book has all the elements of the area: strong, hardy people, atmospheric horror and days as unpredictable as the weather.
One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches is available at Amazon.
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