Witchland inspiration.

Me with Darcy’s portrait at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath

I first got the idea for WITCHLAND after watching one of my favourite Jane Austen adaptations, ‘Persuasion’ starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. This is my favourite Austen, followed closely by ‘Pride and Prejudice’ starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

Much as I love the books and film/tv adaptations, I couldn’t help thinking how constrained the women’s lives were, how dependent they were on their male relatives. The reputation of one family member could be the ruin of all (as so nearly happened with Elizabeth and Jane after Lydia eloped with Mr Wickham).

I started wondering how men would have coped if they had been the ones whose reputations and futures entirely depended upon making a good marriage. History has been written by men, and the world as we know it shaped, in part, by male needs. How could women ever take over, and build a different world? The answer was magic, and WITCHLAND was born.

I decided to start with that most iconic of couples, Elizabeth and Darcy, only I wanted to swap their genders and place them in each other’s families. So, my Eliza began as the Darcy-style character living on a splendid Estate with her younger sister, Georgiana. Like Darcy, Eliza’s loyal but reserved, a kind person keen to do her best for her people.

In WITCHLAND, Will Darsyn is the one with the chaotic but loving family, but brothers instead of sisters because men can’t inherit in this realm. I still wanted him in danger of losing his home, so he’d need to marry well. He’s the second son, closest to his elder brother Jasper. Will can be playful and flirty, but he also has a strong sense of responsibility. He’s fiercely protective of his loved ones.

Quite soon into the story, I knew it wasn’t going to be a retelling, more loosely inspired by the world Jane Austen created. There was no Bingley, and no Wickham to cause conflict. Instead, Eliza would have a cousin determined to bring her down and seize control of the Peverley Estate, and this would be the impetus for Eliza needing to marry quickly. Next came the idea of the marriage curse, leading to Eliza’s reluctance to wed, and her need for a ‘disagreeable’ husband whom she won’t mourn once her magic poisons him.

The first thing I wrote was Eliza standing near her home, wearing a padded hawking glove as a red dragon soared above. I could almost ‘see’ the scene as the dragon drifted down, shapeshifting to the size of a small owl before landing on Eliza’s glove. I knew she was a dragonrider and that her dragon, Erevus, was her familiar.

The second scene I wrote was Will at the Assembly Rooms before he meets Eliza. This later got cut, but it gave me a feel for his character. I often don’t write in a linear fashion; I tend to jump about writing whichever scene is ‘calling’ to me/has just popped into my head. Sometimes I get snatches of dialogue as if the characters are speaking and I just write them down, then build the scene around that. It’s great fun when that happens!

I figured out the history and the wider world as I was writing, adding elements that appealed to me. Like having Anne Boleyn as the woman who changed the timeline. Or making Morgan Le Fae actually be Fae, but a man, and an ally of Witchland who helped Anne Boleyn seize power. My Morgan Le Fae’s eternally in love with a Merlin who reincarnates to serve the Land whenever danger threatens the realm (their story will be Book 3 in the series).

Arthurian legend is something I grew up with, starting with an old book for children ‘King Arthur and his Knights’ (I’ve no idea who wrote it) and later through reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘The Sword and the Circle.’ I’ll always have a soft spot for stories of King Arthur, Merlin and the sorceress Morgan Le Fay; in WITCHLAND both Eliza and Will love the book Legends of Albion, written by King Arthur’s foster brother Kai who collected stories about Merlin’s adventures. That book is also a nod to one of my favourite TV series (BBC’s The Adventures of Merlin), though my Merlin is very different, a lot older and battle-worn after many lifetimes serving Albion (renamed Witchland after the Witch Rising).   

WITCHLAND begins centuries after the Witch Rising, and the nearly immortal Morgan Le Fae is still the witches’ most important ally against the threat of the Druid-ruled Flamelands across the sea.

Adding elements like these makes a story even more fun to write and helps me figure out the worldbuilding.