Former BBC presenter Adrian Chiles says he's studying witchcraft: "Witches are a force only for good"
Former BBC presenter Adrian Chiles has started studying the “dark arts” after finding a witches’ shop in a sleepy village.
The ex-One Show and Match Of The Day 2 host, 57, revealed in a new column for the Guardian that he is now studying witchcraft. On a visit to Halesowen the TV star picked up a copy of a book on the “dark arts” after being skeptical of it his entire life.
In his column, Chiles explained that he has been “decidedly anti-witch” ever since he saw The Wizard Of Oz as a child. But now, he seems to have taken it up as a new hobby, and even vowed to return “to buy some crystals”.
He said: “My curiosity got the better of me and I paid a visit. And there, behind the counter, was the witch herself. I asked her if there were many witches, here in the Halesowen area. ‘You’d be surprised,’ she said. Actually, I wouldn’t. I don’t think anything is ever going to surprise me again.
“I’m thankful to this witch, the delightful Juliet O’Brien, for putting me right on a few things, not least that proper witches don’t do bad things because they know such behaviour will only come back and haunt them. Witches are a force only for good.
“I’ve been reading up on them in a book I bought from Juliet called Basic Witches and I’m liking what I’m finding. I’m going back soon to pick up some crystals, seriously.”
The shop, called The Wicklow Witch, sits opposite a hair salon and up the road from a Nisa Local. The store specialises in candles, crystals and other “witchy” items. The book Chiles purchased, Basic Witches, is written by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman, and costs roughly £12, promising to help readers to “tap into their inner sorceress and channel the dark arts”.