Author Kate Wiseman launches her middle-grade fantasy novel 'The Witch Bottle' with a Q&A and a museum treasure hunt.
Kate Wiseman is launching her new middle-grade fantasy novel, The Witch Bottle, at the Pitt Rivers Museum on Thursday 29 October, from 5.00 to 6.30pm. It's a family-friendly afternoon, so it works as well for kids as it does for adults.
The book's story follows 11-year-old Egg, who finds himself trapped inside a witch bottle. The whole thing is inspired by a real 1915 artefact from the museum's own collection, so the setting is more than just a backdrop. The launch pairs a Q&A with Wiseman herself with a treasure hunt that takes you through the museum galleries, with an appearance by Priscilla the witch to keep things on theme.
If you've never spent much time in the Pitt Rivers, it's one of Oxford's most distinctive anthropology museums, housed inside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Rather than arranging objects by place or period, its galleries group them by type — masks, tools, textiles, weapons, instruments and everyday objects — which lets you compare similar things from different cultures and times side by side. It's best visited as a focused exploration, and it sits right next to the Natural History Museum, so you can easily make a day of both.
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Tickets are £3, or £5 for families — that covers up to three children and one adult. Booking is required by 29 October, and the whole thing runs from 5.00 to 6.30pm at the Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP.
