Kate West

West has received a Lifetime Contribution to Witchcraft award and the Children of Artemis has recognised her as the "most popular factual writer on witchcraft". In addition to her books, West has also spoken at international conventions, celebrations, conferences and events and she often contributes to magazines. She has also appeared on TV, for instance having been the subject of an episode of the BBC documentary series Everyman, and in press and radio interviews. Her books The Real Witches’ Handbook (2001) and The Real Witches’ Kitchen (2002) became bestsellers in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The Real Witches’ Kitchen and The Real Witches’ Garden were the first ever books on modern witchcraft to be translated into Turkish.

West became active in the Pagan Federation, a pagan organisation dedicated to educating the public and fighting defamation, in the mid-1990s and shortly after joining was elected as media officer. Shortly after that, she was nominated to Vice President of the organisation and served as such for three years. Although she was encouraged to run for presidential election by other Pagan Federation members, she ultimately left the organisation to spend time with her young son.

After leaving the Pagan Federation, West founded her own coven in the 1990s, called the Hearth of Hecate. The Hearth of Hecate was founded in Cheshire, where West had moved with her partner Steve Paine. The Hearth of Hecate, established in the Alexandrian tradition, has since grown to encompass active groups throughout the United Kingdom, including several daughter covens. West serves as the High Priestess of The Hearth of Hecate. In addition to being associated with the goddess Hecate, West also has a personal relationship with the Morrígan, a raven deity. The Hearth of Hecate is presently based in North Norfolk where West currently resides.

Kate West (born 1957) is a British author and Wiccan High Priestess. West has held influential positions within the Pagan Federation and the Children of Artemis and has led her own coven, the Hearth of Hecate, since the 1990s. She has written thirteen books and is considered the most successful British author on witchcraft.

Kate West was born in 1957. West's father came from a family of cunning folk originally from Northumberland and her mother was a Roman Catholic woman from London. Though she was raised a Christian, both of West's parents also passed down "old ways of healing and knowledge of the land and the cycles of nature and the seasons" to her. West had her first encounter with a witch at the age of six, when an eccentric elderly woman whom West later understood was a member of an occult group lived with her family for a while. In her teens, West explored various different belief systems but did not find any that met her own spiritual needs, looking for a close relationship with anture and a divinity wherein male and female was balanced. She eventually began to practice witchcraft as a teenager (aged about 15) after having visited the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle and having read a book which mentioned modern witches.