Spelling it out

There’s been a huge explosion of interest in witchcraft in recent years. According to data collected by Trinity College, Connecticut, in the USA, there were an estimated 8,000 practising Wiccans in 1990. By 2008, that number had risen to 340,000 – and it’s thought that there are around 1.5 million people identifying as pagan or Wiccan in the USA today. In the UK, too, more and more people are taking an interest – a 2011 government census found there were 12,000 Wiccans in England and Wales. And of course, not all witches are