However, a good university MA in Creative Writing is more about writing than about publishing your work. My studies enhanced my organisation, enabling me to write with variety and in varying mediums. As a result, I was invited onto The Royal Holloway PhD in Creative Writing by Andrew Motion who was the external examiner on my MA. There, I wrote a collection of short stories and a novel set in the Edwardian period.

After this successful experience I progressed onto the MA in Creative Writing at Queens University Belfast’s Seamus Heaney Centre. Elditha’s story has haunted me for years. My final submission on this course was a play about Edith Swan-Neck, Countess Gytha and two monks who came with Edith Swan-Neck to the battlefield at Hastings to recover King Harold’s body. I studied for the two-year Diploma in Creative Writing which was delivered by well published tutors for poetry, prose and drama. I began with Oxford Continuing Education. Tell us about your studies and how this supported your work However, teaching history and having a family delayed my debut novel by years. These were the kind of stories I wanted to write. I was particularly interested in historical fiction and loved Anya Seton’s novels especially Katherine. How was your interest in writing awakened?Īs a teenager I wrote stories and read voraciously. It is an honour to appear here and to discuss my writing. Thank you, Gail, for inviting me as a guest on your blog. Welcome to the writer is a lonely hunter, Carol. The novel is a wonderfully evocative read, rich and textured, showing a woman’s resilience at a time of much uncertainty. Living amongst invaders, Elditha finds a way to protect her children and seeks a new future. She is cast aside when Harold becomes King in 1066 but is the only person who can identify his body following the Battle of Hastings.

The story, although based on research, is an imagined account of the life of Edith (Elditha) Swan-Neck. Please find below an interview with the talented debut novelist Carol McGrath, author of The Handfasted Wife.

The Handfasted Wife by Carol McGrath