Patricia Forde

In my head, I thought it was based on an Irish legend.

A Patricia legend.

Well, obviously, but I thought that I learned that story as a child.

So it was totally in my head.

And my daughter was studying kind of Celtic Civ and heritage at the time.

And she said, I've never heard of that legend, Mum.

And I said, no, no, don't be silly.

Of course it is a legend.

And then she asked her lecturer and the lecturer said, no.

Never heard of that.

So that I had to write to them and say, actually, it may not be a legend.

Was this a family story or was it something that you invented?

No, I think what happened was there are bits of Irish mythology in that book.

Like the characters are going from island to island and there's a whole thing in Irish mythology called the Himraim.

In English, it's the voyages.

So the hero went off on a voyage and they went to various islands.

And every time they arrived, it was something extraordinary, you know, strange animals.

And it was kind of the other world as well.

And in this book, there's a little girl who's looking for a new home because her home has been destroyed by a volcano.

And she's going from island to island.