Tell me about ... A novel based on an Irish witch

Writer Molly Aitken from Ballydehob will be a guest at next month’s Bantry Literary Festival

What inspired you to become a writer?

I was a storyteller before I could write. At age seven, I ‘directed’ plays I had also devised. I was also the lead actor, while my poor younger sister had to play all the supporting roles. I was read a lot of books as a child, and this certainly fostered a love of story. Books were magical places I could dive into and act out in my games. I think writing for me now is an attempt to keep up that sense of play in adult life, the feeling that I could go anywhere, be it ancient Rome or medieval Ireland. Time travel is totally possible, but only on the page, and inside the mind of the reader or writer.

I learned to read quite late. Perhaps I’m undiagnosed dyslexic or I couldn’t sit down for long enough but when I finally did at age nine, I was hooked on books. I wrote a story about an orphan (all my main characters were orphans…and often are today) and gave it as a Christmas present to my aunt. As a surprise for me, she had it professionally bound. I remember being handed my book. It was this beautiful blue with detailed navy endpapers and a swirly title page reading ‘Sophie Has A Visitor’, surely my best book title to this day. I was holding a book I’d written and it felt like magic. That was the moment I was hooked. It still feels pretty spectacular, even at 33.

How does your West Cork upbringing influence your writing?

I was alone a lot as a teenager. I didn’t have loads of good friends. I now consider myself to be an extroverted introvert. You can’t shut me up in the right setting, but as a teenager I was very insular, and quiet. I spent a lot of time reading and making up stories. Perhaps if I’d lived in a city like Dublin this wouldn’t have been the case, but long walks by the estuary in Ballydehob gave me so much space and time to come up with characters.

My first novel, The Island Child was really influenced by my West Cork upbringing. I was fascinated by small communities, the gossip that can rise up and how destructive that can be, but also how supportive and kind people are in smaller communities. The Island Child is all about the sea and her myths, beauties and dangers, and I think that must be because I grew up on the coast. I now still feel that pull to the ocean. I long to live near the sea again. One day!

Are you a frequent visitor home?

Not much anymore sadly, as my family has moved away, but I did come back recently for one of my best friend’s weddings. She had a gorgeous Celtic wedding in Baltimore Castle. It was so nostalgic for all of us that grew up in West Cork. The day after the wedding we took our hangovers over to Sherkin. It was such a reminder of the extraordinary beauty of this part of the world. We were all so lucky to live in West Cork.

What is Bright, I Burn about?

Bright I Burn is a retelling of the life of the first person ever condemned as a witch in Ireland. It gives a voice to Alice Kyteler one of Medieval Ireland’s most influential and powerful women. It opens with a young Alice who sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities. Alice then vows that she won’t suffer the same fate. Soon she discovers she has a flair for making money, and builds a flourishing business. But as her wealth and stature grow, so too do the rumours about her private life.

By the time she has moved on to her fourth husband, a blaze of local gossip and resentment culminates in an accusation that could prove fatal. It was an absolute joy to step back into medieval Kilkenny and enter the mind of such a fascinating woman, almost lost to history. I feel strongly we don’t remember enough of Ireland’s women, especially further back than the 20th century. I’d love to change that with my writing.

The story is about Alice Kyteler but does it have resonance with modern Ireland?

Absolutely. I feel really strongly that the time has come to celebrate and remember the women of Irish history. I think that gives girls and women today empowerment. It gives us role models, and shows us just what women have been achieving in Ireland for hundreds of years. Bright I Burn focuses on one woman’s ambition and rage.

I had this strong sense in writing it that if Alice Kyteler hadn’t been so ambitious she never would’ve been accused of being a witch.

People, namely men, were afraid of her because she was a woman and because she was so powerful in her day – she was a highly successful banker and had many friends in high places in Ireland. Today, women are still sometimes judged for prioritising career over mothering, for being openly and unashamedly ambitious. It’s a problem in all patriarchal cultures, which let’s face it is most places around the world.

• Molly Aitken will be at the West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry on Saturday, July 13th at 11.30am in Bantry Bookshop. This is a free event and all are welcome. See www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie