Witches travel between real world and magical world in novel set in 19th Century Belfast

AN Antrim Road woman has fulfilled her dream of writing a book which is set to launch at the beginning of April.

Margaret McMahon’s novel 'Crescent Witches' is set in Belfast 150 years ago and follows the adventures of two witches who live in the city's iconic Albert Clock.

In Margaret’s book, which is being published by Shanway Press, the witches live in the monument and their world exists behind a magical veil which allows them to travel between the magical world and the real world. Many locations throughout the North have been reimagined in the story. Carrickfergus Castle is a magical school and the Giant’s Causeway is a hidden magical city in which every stone represents a house.

The idea to write the book came to Margaret after she was encouraged by her son and daughter who always loved her stories while growing up. Margaret explained that in school she struggled with dyslexia and it affected her learning.

“I was like a wallflower in school," she said. "I couldn’t understand why everyone else could understand all the words on the page and they just didn’t make sense to me. It was only years later that I realised I had dyslexia.

“I left school with no education but I was always into being creative and into art. I ended up becoming a florist and I’ve worked as one for most of my life. I also worked at Bunscoil Mhic Reachtain for a number of years. I included Irish in my book, it’s in the spells in the book as I wanted to have the language included.”

Margaret said she wanted to make the book about witches and magic and set in the Belfast of the 19th Century because it’s an era which gets so little attention in fiction about the city.

“We have some absolutely beautiful monuments in Belfast and I wanted to incorporate them into the story.”

The book will be launched at McHugh’s Bar, just opposite Albert Clock on Sunday 2 April.

Margaret said: “It should be really exciting, we are using the two upper rooms and they are going to be designed so they will look like how I described the inside of the Albert Clock in the book!”