A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft in this the first installmant of this epic fantasy
trilogy about a group of childhood friends who are also witches. 'If you look hard enough at
old photographs we're there in the background: healers in the trenches Suffragettes
Bletchley Park oracles land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of
crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes plain and simple.' At the dawn of
their adolescence on the eve of the summer solstice four young girls-Helena Leonie Niamh
and Elle-took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven established by Queen Elizabeth I as a
covert government department. Now decades later the witch community is still reeling from a
civil war and an attempted coup and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the
organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale
bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife and Niamh has become a
country vet using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena percieves as the deepest
betryal Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven
Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities
is being detained and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. Everyone knows that
warlocks shouldn't be this powerful and when it's revealed that Theo is transgender it makes
sense. But Helena has absolutely no intention of inducting a trans girl into HMRC and her
subsequent actions send ruptures through not only her group of friends but the whole community
- and this time it looks like there's no turning back. Juno Dawson explores the big topics
concerning women today: gender feminism the patriarchy and the corrupting nature of power in
an explosive conversation-starting novel that is sharp funny provocative and joyous. Most of
all HMRC is the story of female friendship. Dealing with all the aspects of 30-something
womanhood today as well as being phenomenally powerful witches Niamh Helena Leonie and Elle
may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.
