Sidmouth author's new book puts women's rights in the spotlight

Carl East of Winstone's Independent Bookshop (Image: Carl East)

Changing trends in society are always reflected in the books published and bought.

The #MeToo movement and the debate over trans rights have influenced writers of fiction as well as journalists and commentators

Sistersong by Sidmouth’s Lucy Holland is one of a wave of exciting new books looking afresh at history and myth, retelling them with a modern eye, putting women’s live at the forefront where traditionally feminine voices have been absent or redacted.

When the Romans left ancient Britain, the territory, Devon included, was divided up by opposing tribes and invaders such as the Angles and Saxons.

Written records effectively ceased and we came to know the intrigues of the period mainly through myths and ballads.

The folk song ‘The Twa Sisters’ is one such tale and is the basis for the Dark Ages set Sistersong.

It was led too by the discovery of stone age and post-Roman remains found at High Peak in Sidmouth.

I caught up with Lucy to ask her a few questions about her book:

How did you first hear of the local archaeological remains that inspired you?

While researching the Romano British period in Devon, I came across a local website's archaeological report. To my great surprise, it was about Peak Hill, so I immediately walked up there to have a look.

Magic is part of your previous books, would you describe Sistersong as a fantasy novel?

I would describe it as historical fantasy. Although the Twa Sisters ballad inspired it, Sistersong is shaped hugely by the seismic economic and cultural events of sixth century Britain.

The Twa Sisters can be described as a Murder Ballad, did you set out to right the inherent misogyny of this type of narrative?

The male lens tends to cast women as stereotypes - and this ballad is no different. I wanted to find the real people behind it, and give them a chance to tell their stories directly.

Which female authors have inspired you to write?

Ursula K. Le Guin and Patricia A. McKillip have been my greatest inspirations. Both pushed against the boundaries of their time to produce feminist masterworks that I hope will be read in centuries to come.

Sistersong is out in paperback now, with signed copies are available at the shop.

Madeleine Miller arguably set the template for revisionist feminist retellings with The Song of Achilles and later Circe.

These were also at the vanguard of books shared by influencers on the social media app TikTok, and became a sensation with younger readers.

Pat Barker the Booker Prize winning author of the WW1 Regeneration Trilogy has turned to portraying women's experience of war.

Retelling The Iliad in The Silence of the Girls through the narration the concubine of hero Achilles. In her new novel the story continues past the fall of the great city as the Greeks sail home with their captives, The Women of Troy.

Jennifer Saint author of best-seller Ariadne follows up with, Elektra focusing on the origins of the Trojan War and the curse on the House of Atreus.

Elektra is the niece of Helen of Troy and is horrified by the conflict among of her family. Can she escape the ancestral curse, or is her and her sisters’ destiny always to be by bound the fickle nature of men and gods?

Finally, and inspired by true events during a time of superstition and religious conflict, Kiran Millwood Hargreaves novel The Dance Tree is set medieval Strasbourg.

In the middle of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She continues for days without pause or rest, and is soon joined by hundreds of others.

An emergency is declared, is this the work of the Devil, madness or civil disobedience? How can this challenge to authority be stopped?