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.
A Witch Shall be Born
This story was written in late May or early June 1934. Farnsworth Wright, editor of "Weird Tales", was running out of Conan stories which were growing in popularity and attracting new readers to the magazine. Howard had recently finished the Conan novel "The Hour of the Dragon", which was not intended for publication in "Weird Tales" and the story previous to that, "The People of the Black Circle" was already scheduled for August. He finished "A Witch Shall Be Born" in only two drafts over a period of days in order to meet this deadline. Wright accepted it without hesitation, telling Howard it was his best Conan story to date, and made it the cover story for the December issue.