The title immediately conjures an image for me the old Catholic Bishop who is equal parts stern and stuffy. There was a character in this book that I was worried about, an old Bishop known as the Bishop of Hereford. Which of your main characters has surprised you the most? And what was surprising? So, I’ve sprinkled in the odd character trait from real people I’ve met and added bits and pieces from legend and fable which I felt fit this story. I’ve set the book in a particular time, the 1190’s, which means that there are historical events occurring which I can weave into the plot but it is still my world and my characters. With a historical novel, there is a lot of room to play but you are also restricted in some ways the location and characters are fixed to some extent but there is still room to add things which are new and fresh. One of my biggest inspirations for the story was a childhood favourite Howard Pyle’s ‘ The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood ’ but I also looked up some of the older ballads including ‘Robyn and the Bishop’ and the ‘Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly’ all of which gave me some really good ideas for where to take the story. ‘Scarlet’ is the second of my Robyn Hood adventures, and for this book, I knew I wanted to introduce one of the most famous characters from the Robin Hood stories. Your 8th book, Scarlet (The Robyn Hood Adventures Book 2), comes out on February 26th, What was the inspiration for the story? Regardless of the adventure or the character, her books always include romance, love, and a lesbian main character. She loves rewriting fairy tales for the modern reader or re-telling mythical stories of old with a sapphic twist. Her journey with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome allowed her imagination to blossom and now she gets to share that wild imagination and all those adventures with her readers. Niamh Murphy grew up in rural Wales, who has a degree in Medieval Archaeology and History.

Outlaw by Niamh Murphy