But that was a long time ago. Surely it is many years since a woman was arrested and accused of being a witch. Well, not as long ago as you might think. The last occasion was in 1944, during the Second World War, and it happened like this. Helen Duncan, who came from Scotland, had a special gift – she was able to talk to the spirits of dead people. Or at least, she said she could do this, and plenty of people believed her. She held meetings, called seances, where people sat in a circle holding hands while she attempted to speak to the spirits of the dead. At one seance, the parents of a young sailor were present. Their son was missing, and they feared that he might be dead. Mrs Duncan spoke to the spirit of the young sailor. She told his parents that he had died when a German submarine had attacked his ship. Now, the young man was indeed dead, and his ship had indeed been attacked by a submarine, but the government had kept this secret. So how did Helen Duncan know? Was she a spy? Was she a witch? What other military secrets did she know? What else might she say? The authorities decided that they had to silence her. She was arrested and accused of witchcraft. The court found her guilty and sent her to prison for 9 months.

　　The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, thought that sending Helen Duncan to prison for witchcraft was “tomfoolery” (“Tomfoolery” is an old-fashioned word meaning silly nonsense). He visited her in prison, and a few years after the War had ended he persuaded Parliament to repeal the old laws on witchcraft.

　　So, if you want to be a witch in Britain today, you can be – thanks to Helen Duncan and Winston Churchill.