Whispering to Witches
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| Author | Anna Dale |
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| Cover artist | Melvyn Grant |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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Publication date
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2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 280 pp (paperback edition) |
Whispering to Witches is British writer Anna Dale's first novel, published in 2004 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It is a magical mystery adventure intended for youngsters age 8-12. It was publisher Bloomsbury's main title for Autumn 2004 and was scheduled for distribution in the UK, the United States, Germany, and other countries.
The book is drawn from her 2001 Master's dissertation in writing for children.
The story follows the adventures of a young boy named Joe Binks who makes the acquaintance of a young witch nicknamed Twiggy. The two are caught up in a whirlwind of magical adventures and mysteries as they search for the evil being who is trying to halt the spreading of the magical community, thus ceasing the existence of witches forever.
When Joe Binks’ father, Nicholas Binks, announces to him that they will not be spending Christmas together in London, Joe is distraught. Joe’s Great-aunt Adelaide has taken a fall, and Nick is going to spend time with her because she’s not doing well. Joe boards a train in King’s Cross Station heading for Canterbury so that he can spend the Holidays with his mother, Merle, and her new family (Joe’s stepdad, Gordon, and his younger sister, Esme).
While on the train, Joe makes the acquaintance of a woman with black hair wearing a pink woolen suit filling out a crossword puzzle with a marble green fountain pen, and a man in a pinstriped suit with an “S” shaped tattoo on his wrist talking on a cellular phone. The three exchange light small talk, and the woman points out that Joe dropped his ticket on the ground. Shortly after retrieving his ticket, a glamorous woman wearing a black velvet coat sits down next to Joe. She carries a cat basket on her lap with two rats in it. The lights in the car go out, and Joe seems to notice several flashes of light, that show two rats fighting a snake that appears to be the same color as the fountain pen, and the other two adults have vanished. Shortly after, Joe exits the train.
A stoutly woman wearing a long black dress and a navy blue coat rudely collects Joe’s ticket, and scurries away. Joe then meets two people who work at the train station, who inform Joe that he’s gotten off at the wrong stop, and that he gave his ticket to an imposter. They provide him with a tricycle that he may use to ride home to his mother's house. As he begins his journey home, Joe notices the tricycle has a mind of its own as it rushes him away to a building on Weaver's Street with a crooked chimney and purple door.
He meets several women in what appears to be an office building, the first of which is a girl named Twiggy, who appears to be a girl his age with wily unkempt brown hair. The next is Rose, a grumpy older woman, who gives Joe a hard time. The third is a tall blonde woman named Winifred, and the fourth is Patsy, an eccentric gray frizzy haired woman named Patsy. An older gentleman named Julius sits in an armchair behind them. Joe notices that all the women are dressed exclusively in black, have several very old-fashioned brooms, wands, and several witch hats are situated on hat-blocks. Joe learns that the women are witches, and the tricycle that he used to get from the station home was actually a bewitched broomstick, disguised to look like a tricycle so that Patsy could ride it in public. Patsy, however, appears to have a horrible habit of transforming objects into something else, and losing them. Apparently, her cat Squib was transformed into something, and has yet to resurface. Patsy transforms the tricycle back onto her broomstick. In Patsy’s incantation, Patsy references objects called the Spillikins of Doom, which is a foreign name to Twiggy. When Twiggy questions Patsy about what they are, Patsy explains that she doesn’t know what they are, but they are referenced in the most popular magical book, called Mabel’s Book.
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