The Worst Witch
The Worst Witch is a series of children's books written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The series are primarily boarding school and fantasy stories, with eight books already published. The first one, "The Worst Witch", was published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and the most recent one, "First Prize for the Worst Witch", was published in 2018 by Puffin Books, the current publisher of all the series. The books have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 4 million copies.
Three Witches
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" (c. 1603–1607). They hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology, and are, perhaps, intended as a twisted version of the white-robed incarnations of destiny. The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise. Their origin lies in "Holinshed's Chronicles" (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare's imagination, include British folklore, such contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's "Daemonologie", the Norns of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae. Productions of "Macbeth" began incorporating portions of Thomas Middleton's contemporaneous play "The Witch" "circa" 1618, two years after Shakespeare's death.