There is no getting away from the fact (however well-hidden it may be) that authors write from experience and whether consciously or sub-consciously favourite themes and places start to creep into their works. The Last Druid takes place in three of my favourite places: Oxford, Gosforth and of course Northumberland. My love of Oxford started with reading Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of the Inklings. In particular I was fascinated by Addison Walk. This is a special place in the grounds of Magdalen College. The very place that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien use to go for evening strolls, passing the deer park to their left, crossing a little wooden bridge where you eventually come to the Fellow’s Garden. It is a place I try and visit once a year with friends who enjoy it nearly as much as me. Although I am originally from Bradford, Newcastle and Gosforth have been my home for over sixteen years.

Gosforth is only a stone’s throw from Newcastle’s city centre but sometimes feels like it sits in the edge land between town and country. Some think the name comes from the Old English Gosaford, meaning “a ford where the geese dwell” having been first recorded as Goseford in 1166. It reminds a little of Oxford, every street leads to a Church or a quaint field. My favourite has to be Elgy Green where I have spent many a happy day kicking the ball with my son.

For me, there is nowhere quite like Northumberland its people, landscape, history and mythology offered a perfect setting for The Last Druid. I like the idea of ‘lost worlds’ and of course ‘epic fantasy’ and there are certainly elements of both in The Last Druid. But I am particularly fond of secondary worlds that slowly seep into the real world. Where the distinction between good and evil, light and dark is blurred and where the ‘threat’ is always lurking in the background. Shadowy figures moving edge-lands of the mind. Whilst in the real world the magic or supernatural elements are subtle until the transition into the secondary world. This way, the suspension of disbelief can be achieved more readily. Northumberland offered me the perfect edge land between the natural and supernatural. It allows my book to move from low Fantasy to high fantasy whilst still enabling the suspension of disbelief. It is here that the Mid Land (our world) becomes entangled with the Other Land (a secondary world that blends myth, legend and a little history).

The Last Druid takes place across what is known as the Northumberland Coastal route and Northumberland National Park. The characters in The Last Druid arrive in Warkworth with its castle sat atop its hill like a sleeping dragon. If you take the north road you quickly find yourself in Alnmouth – literally the mouth of the Aln. A place to find sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle with its quaint rainbow coloured houses nestling besides its sweeping estuary. Next is Howick Hall with its magnificent Gardens and Arboretum. I have spent many a happy day walking through its secret gardens and enjoying an Earl Grey in its wonderful tearoom (It’s where Earl Grey Tea gets its name from). From Howick it’s a short journey to Craster with its threatening views of Dunstanburgh Castle straight from a fairy tale. There is something darkly exciting about this place that you cannot easily describe.

You quickly move through Beadnell with its sweeping horseshoe bay where you can imagine the charge of the Forest Reivers. The road north cuts through Seahouses until you reach Bamburgh. I cannot easily describe the feeling that emanates the moment you see its Castle standing atop its rocky perch its shadows sweeping down to meet the sea. Perhaps one of the most stunning views in the whole of Northumberland. Bamburgh plays an important part in the book and is home of the Marcher Lords. You move through Bamburgh and out towards Budle Bay until you eventually arrive at Holy Island. This is a special place, twice a day it is cut off from the mainland by its tidal walls and rising from the distance is Lindisfarne. In the book Holy Island becomes the gateway between the Mid-Land (our world) and the Other-Land.

If the Northumberland Coastal Route creates the back drop for The Last Druid’s main narrative. Then the Northumberland National Park creates an interesting sub-plot. ‘Come to the lands of the far horizons’ as one web-site describes it. ‘It came without warning, rising from the cold black waters, a dark resonance of lightless silk. To the north the giant ridged spine of the borderland broke in great waves against the threatening Cheviot night, whilst to the south the ancient lands of Northumberland gave way to wild woods and fast-flowing rivers moving east to the sea’, as The Last Druid pays homage to this remarkable landscape. In the book this is home of the Forest Reivers and Crow-Men. A place where legend, myth and history fuse together to create England’s hidden jewels.