I’m not aware of Enid Blyton writing a series of ghost stories, but she came close in the ones about Barney, the circus boy, his ordinary middle class mates and the politically-incorrect spaniel, Loony. Has a book ever changed your life or made you think differently? In fact, much of Wordsworth’s poetic self-discovery took place in the Wye Valley in Herefordshire, where he had some strange experiences and - there’s reason to believe - almost became a Druid. It involves the poet William Wordsworth, who most people associate with the Lake District, his birthplace. I had that title before the story, but now the story’s taken over, and it’s not quite the same one. I’m still not certain that’s going to be what it’s called. Is there anything you can tell us about the latest Merrily Watkins book, For the Hell of It? And the fact that Merrily’s fifteen year-old daughter was what was known then as a teen witch.
I just needed a youngish female vicar to toss into the mix. For the first Merrily Watkins novel, The Wine of Angels, I used a true story that I’d originally developed for a BBC Radio Four feature and realised could be altered to create what I was looking for.
Female vicars were still a comparatively new phenomenon in Britain. Did it feel like a bold step at the time writing about a female vicar? And so anything I needed to know about Dee that wasn’t in the biogs I asked Richard, without specifying the context, and he headed off to Mortlake and asked the man himself. A long way from me, but quite convenient for my friend Sir Richard Heygate, co-author of The Book of English Magic, and his motorbike. But Dee’s actually more associated with London - particularly Mortlake, on the Thames. John Dee’s family home was a house called Nant-y-groes, near Presteigne, in mid Wales, not far from where we live now. Well, they’re novels, so anything goes as long as it sounds as if it could be right. Is it true that you employed some unusual methods to research his life? You have written two books about the Tudor scientist Dr John Dee. and then I sort of grew up and nothing much changed. Started with Enid Blyton, moved on to Ian Fleming and then John le Carré, P. Who were your literary heroes and influences as you were growing up? The 15th book in the series, currently titled For the Hell of It, is due out in October.
He is the author of the Merrily Watkins series, which has been adapted for television. Phil Rickman is a bestselling British author of supernatural and mystery novels.
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