by Sarah Rayne | Apr 22, 2016 | ancient legends, haunted houses, old diaries, Sarah Rayne, settings for fiction
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote a quartet of fantasy books set in ancient Ireland and starring a charismatic, slightly-dangerous, and not entirely human creature… Cormac mac Airt was inspired by a medieval King of Ireland of the same name, and I...
by Sarah Rayne | Feb 14, 2016 | charect, haunted houses, Sarah Rayne, settings for fiction
There’s a marvellous theme running through Benjamin Britten’s opera, Owen Wingrave, which is based on the Henry James’ story. It’s, ‘Listen to the house.’ It’s something I’ve done for years. By ‘listen’ I don’t mean yomping round the Tower of London and thinking...
by Sarah Rayne | Jan 7, 2016 | ancient legends, ghosts, haunted houses, Sarah Rayne, Uncategorized
Quite near to where I live is a beautiful and mostly unspoilt village which is chockful of history. It’s home to the 1,000-year-old Horn Dance, whose performers still caper through the village with enthusiastic glee once a year; it’s mentioned in the Domesday Book,...
by Sarah Rayne | Dec 4, 2015 | ghost stories, ghosts, haunted houses, Uncategorized
It was not a day on which I was expecting to meet a ghost. I know I write books with slightly eerie settings and incidents – also outright, unashamed ghost stories – but I don’t actually expect to actually find myself in one of those settings. It was, in fact, a...
by Sarah Rayne | Oct 5, 2015 | ancient legends, charect, ghost stories, ghosts, haunted houses, old diaries
The haunted house series, featuring Michael Flint and Nell West, was born several years ago, when I was asked to write and present a ghost-story evening at a local historic house. There were so many legends attached to the place it was almost a question of...
