Witch Week was published by Macmillan in 1982. The novel is set in a parallel world where the history of witchcraft persecution never ended — witches are still burned, and suspicion of magical ability can destroy a life. The setting is Doddos Doddos School, a grim boarding school where the students are children of convicted or suspected witches, stigmatized and watched.
The plot begins with an anonymous note: “Someone in this class is a witch.” The question is not whether the accusation is true — in this world, some people genuinely have magical powers — but who it is, and what will happen when they’re discovered. As the week progresses, magical events multiply: broomsticks appear, spells go wrong, teachers transform, and the students must confront both their fear of being discovered and their growing realization that almost all of them have some degree of magical ability.
Jones uses the boarding-school setting — with its hierarchies, its cruelties, its alliances and betrayals — as a mirror for the larger society’s persecution of difference. The children who fear being witches are also children who fear being unpopular, unfashionable, or simply noticed. The witch-hunt is both literal and metaphorical: a story about how communities identify and destroy the different.
The novel’s resolution — when Chrestomanci finally appears — is not merely magical but structural: he doesn’t just save the characters but addresses the fundamental problem with their world, offering a solution that is both satisfying and surprising.
Collecting Witch Week
First edition (Macmillan, London, 1982): Hardcover, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $100–$250
- Very good/very good: $40–$100