The Witches is a 1983 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. A dark fantasy, the story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother in a world where child-hating societies of witches secretly exist in every country. The witches are ruled by the vicious and powerful Grand High Witch, who arrives in England to organise her plan to turn all of the children there into mice. The Witches was originally published by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake who had previously collaborated with Dahl. It received mixed reviews and was criticised for misogyny. In 2012, the book was ranked number 81 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a US monthly. In 2019, the BBC listed The Witches on its list of the 100 most influential novels. In 2012, the Grand High Witch appeared on a Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp.[1] The book has been adapted into an unabridged audio reading by Lynn Redgrave, a stage play, a two-part radio dramatization for the BBC, a 1990 film directed by Nicolas Roeg which starred Anjelica Huston, a 2008 opera by Marcus Paus and Ole Paus, and a 2020 film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Anne Hathaway.