Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire and a leading authority on the belief in witchcraft, magic, ghosts, and popular medicine from the ancient world to the modern era. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (OUP, 2009) and America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem (OUP, 2013).

In his contribution to the Research Exchange, he reflects on how he came to write his new book, ‘A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination, and Faith during the First World War’, which was published by Oxford University Press in October 2018.