[1] The book has been adapted into an unabridged audio reading by Lynn Redgrave, a stage play and a two-part radio dramatization for the BBC, a 1990 film directed by Nicolas Roeg which starred Anjelica Huston and Rowan Atkinson, a 2008 opera by Marcus Paus and Ole Paus, and a 2020 film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Anne Hathaway.
The story is narrated from the perspective of an unnamed seven-year-old English boy, who goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are killed in a car accident.
The grandmother warns the boy to be on his guard, since English witches are known to be among the most vicious in the world, notorious for turning children into loathsome creatures so unsuspecting adults will kill them.
Shortly after arriving back in England, while the boy is working on the roof of his treehouse, he sees a strange woman in black staring up at him with an eerie smile and quickly realises that she is a witch.
While the boy is training his pet mice given to him as a consolation present by his grandmother, the hotel ballroom hosts the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children."
When they reach underneath their hair to scratch at their scalp with a gloved hand, the boy realises that this is the yearly gathering of the English witches, and that he is trapped in the now-closed room.
The Grand High Witch unveils her master plan: all of England's witches are to purchase sweet shops (with counterfeited money printed by her from a magical money-making machine) and give away free sweets and chocolates laced with a drop of her latest creation: "Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker," a magic potion which turns the consumer into a mouse at a specified time set by the potion-maker.
To demonstrate the formula's effectiveness, the Grand High Witch brings in a child named Bruno Jenkins, a rich and often greedy boy lured to the convention hall with the promise of free chocolate.
She reveals that she had tricked Bruno Jenkins into eating a chocolate bar laced with the formula the day before, and had set the "alarm" to go off during the meeting.
They will travel to the Grand High Witch's Norwegian castle, and use the potion to change her successor and assistants into mice, then release cats to destroy them.
One perspective offered by Castleton University professor James Curtis suggests that the rejection of the novel by parents is caused by its focus on “child-hate” and Dahl’s reluctance to shield children from such a reality.
[6] The scholar argues that the book showcases a treatment of children that is not actually worse than historical and modern examples; however, Dahl’s determination to expose to his young readers the truth can be controversial.
[7] Despite society occasionally making progress in its treatment of children, Curtis argues that different aspects of child-hate displayed in Dahl’s work are based on real world examples.
[6] In 2012, The Witches was ranked number 81 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with a primarily US audience.
[5] Ann Waldron of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in her 1983 review that she would suggest not gifting the book to a child who is more emotional to particularly frightening scenarios.
[14] Questions have also been raised about the ending of the book, with some critics suggesting it might encourage suicide in children by telling them they can avoid growing up by dying.
"[19] The decision was met with strong criticism from groups and public figures including authors Salman Rushdie,[20][21] and Christopher Paolini,[22] British prime minister Rishi Sunak,[20][21] Queen Camilla,[20][23] Kemi Badenoch,[24] PEN America,[20][21] and Brian Cox.
[26][27] In 1990, The Witches was adapted into a film starring Anjelica Huston and Rowan Atkinson, directed by Nicolas Roeg, co-produced by Jim Henson, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
The book has been recorded three times: In 2008, BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial broadcast a two-part dramatisation of the novel by Lucy Catherine, directed by Claire Grove.
The cast included Margaret Tyzack as the Grandmother, Toby Jones as the Narrator, Ryan Watson as the Boy, Jordan Clarke as Bruno and Amanda Lawrence as the Grand High Witch.