Author Talk with Sally O'Reilly

Join acclaimed author Sally O’Reilly as she discusses her latest work, Hagtale: A Macbeth Original Story. Join acclaimed author Sally O’Reilly as she discusses her latest work, Hagtale: A Macbeth Original Story. Taking place in the atmospheric surroundings of our medieval hall at Smithills, this event promises to transport you to a world of intrigue.

Books will be sold and signed on the day. About 'Hagtale' A hagtale, a dark fable, a story told around winter’s fires and known to Shakespeare but never written down. Until now.

In eleventh-century Scotland, feral wolf-child Wulva is brought up by witches and then sent to live at a Scottish castle, where she falls under the spell of cruel, ambitious Lord Macbeth. Three hundred years later, gentle Brother Rowan goes on a strange and perilous journey to a remote and ancient monastery to write a history of the Scottish king-line. Misfits in their own time, seekers after truth, Wulva and Rowan are deeply connected despite the centuries that separate them.

Hagtale explores the power of stories lost and found, their transformative potential, and who gets to be the owner of the tale. About the author Sally O’Reilly was born in Stoke-on-Trent and lives in Sheffield. She’s published two contemporary novels with Michael Joseph/Penguin and has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Brunel University.

Her historical novel Dark Aemilia (Myriad Editions/Picador US) was nominated for the Kirkus Prize, and her short fiction has been published in Australia, South Africa and the UK. Sally has worked as a senior creative writing lecturer for the University of Portsmouth and The Open University and her journalism has been published in the Guardian, Sunday Times and New Scientist. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Aston University.