KATE FORSYTH’s new book, The Changeling, is inspired by the true story of Scotland’s first witch-hunt and follows a young woman with faery blood who must defy two queens to survive love, magic and treachery.

We asked Kate to share five surprising things about her herself.

1. I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I was scribbling down poems and stories from the time I could first hold a pencil, which was around four. I made little books, with title and copyright pages, and very bad illustrations. My school magazine published one of my poems when I was 13, and I can still remember my excitement and joy at seeing my name in print. It was about a witch, so not much has changed!

2. My father was a vet, and when I was very small we lived in a house attached to his clinic. We always had a house filled with pets, including a wallaby named Christabel and a pony named Rosie. My books tend to have animals in them too, and I’ve had many a four-legged friend named after an animal character in one of my books.

3. Every year, I run a literary tour in either the South East of England, or in Greece. It’s like a travelling bookclub. I set a carefully curated reading list, which everyone reads before we travel, then we meet up every day and talk about the book in the landscape which inspired the author. For example, in England, we read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and visit her home in Hampshire and A Room of One’s Own by Virgina Woolf and visit her country residence in East Sussex. In Greece, we read Charmian Clift’s memoir of living in Hydra while staying only metres from her house. It’s the most fabulous literary experience!

4. My siblings and I were brought up in a big house full of books and with a big garden full of herbs, fruit trees and a huge sprawling vegetable patch. My mother was the most amazing cook, and used to make bread and jam and soup from scratch. I love to do the same, and so when I’m not writing I can be found in my garden, picking herbs and flowers, or in my kitchen, cooking up something delicious.

5. Both my grandmothers had Scottish ancestry, which means I grew up on stories of curses and doomed queens, loch-serpents and shapeshifting seals. My father’s mother was called Jean Macdonald, and her family came from Sleat in the Ise of Skye. My mother’s mother was Joy Mackenzie-Wood, and her family once lived in Rosemarkie on the Black Isle in the Highlands. When we were little girls, our grandmother dressed us in kilts and told us stories about our family’s castle, lost to us generations ago. Is it any wonder so many of my stories draw on Scottish history and myth?

***********

Read another interview with Kate Forsyth

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author and oral storyteller who grew up on tales of Scottish history and folklore told by her grandmother and great-aunts. Her books include Psykhe, a feminist reimagining of the ancient Greek myth; Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel which won the American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction; and The Witches of Eileanan, a dark romantic fantasy which was named one of the Best First Novels by Locus.

Kate has a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies, and runs writing retreats and literary tours in Greece, the Cotswolds and Scotland. She has sold more than 1.5 million books in twenty languages.

Visit Kate Forsyth’s website here.

Follow Kate Forsyth on Instagram here.

Read more about the book on the publisher’s website here.