Can anyone help me identify this book?

[Ouroboros]

This is a long shot as I don't remember much about it. I think it was for older children, and the action was based around a cottage that the protagonists believed belonged to a witch. At the end of the book the thatch of the cottage caught fire, and someone found some small bottles in the thatch - one of them contained human blood. That's all I can remember, and some of it might not be right... Any suggestions gratefully recieved as it's annoying me!

Just tried a google search and is this any help? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_World

Thank you for looking but it's not one of those. It would have been written a bit earlier, and more like something by Penelope Lively I think.

The Whispering Knights by Lively?

or the Ghost of Thomas Kempe

I've just been looking at The Whispering Knights after prompting myself! I might have to buy a copy and see if that's it. Thanks for your help.

I think it might be the Ghost of Thomas Kempe actually - they discover that a sorcerer used to live in their cottage and his ghost gets accidentally unbottled after a bottle found in the wall gets unstoppered. Then he goes around causing trouble and IIRC he might set fire to the house of an old lady in the village who he claims is a witch.

No, I re-read that one recently and it wasn't it. I do love a bit of retro children's literature.

could it be anything by Nina Beachcroft? Well worth reading and similar to Penelope Lively.

Thank you, will definitely look at her books

It's ringing a vague bell - I think it might be one of the stories in "The Shadow Cage" anthology, but I'm not 100% sure. It might be that one of those stories has little bottles with "bad things" in them.

Ahhhhhh.... Was it called well met by witch light?

www.amazon.co.uk/Well-Met-Witchlight-Nina-Beachcroft/dp/0749701544