The books in the series all focus on Mildred Hubble, a young witch who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a school of magic. The Worst Witch was finally published in 1974, when Murphy was 24, by the small independent company Allison and Busby. Publication of The Worst Witch by finally came about, as Jill Murphy recalled, 'thanks to a series of coincidences involving me spending time in Ghana, and a friend meeting Margaret Busby (Ghanaian herself, and considering starting a children's list for her imprint) at a publishers' party in London'. Murphy concluded the first book at the age of 18, but it was rejected by many publishers (on the grounds that children would find a book about a school for witches too 'scary'), so she 'put it in a drawer' and concentrated on other things, including working as a nanny and in a children's home, and for a time living in West Africa, where her first husband was studying. All the characters are based on my school friends (and enemies) and teachers.' You look like the three witches!' and it gave me the idea for a witch's school – so that it was exactly like my school, but with a subtle touch of magic. Recalling how the story was initially inspired by her own school experiences, she said in an interview: 'My two friends and I used to come home in our dark uniforms, looking very scruffy at the end of the day – my dark plaits sprouting tufts, with lost hair ribbons. The author Jill Murphy began writing The Worst Witch at the age of 15, while still at school, and based many points of the stories on her own school experiences at Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, England, with Singing becoming Chanting, Chemistry becoming Potions and so on.

A new adaptation, co-production of CBBC, ZDF, and Netflix premiered in 2017. A TV series based on the book aired from 1998 to 2001, and has inspired two spin-offs, Weirdsister College, aired in 2001, and The New Worst Witch, aired in 2005. In 1986, the first book in the series was made into a television film of the same name.

The books have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 5 million copies. The first, The Worst Witch, was published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and the most recent, First Prize for the Worst Witch, was published in 2018 by Puffin Books, the current publisher of the series.

The series are primarily about a girl who attends a witch school and fantasy stories, with eight books published. The Worst Witch is a series of children's books written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The covers from the first seven books, shown in publication order

The worst witch books