Emilia Hart Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Emilia Hart discusses her debut novel, Weyward, and the how the timelines she chose were relevant to contemporary events.

In Weyward, our heroines Altha, Violet, and Kate live in different time periods: 1619, 1942, and 2019. Why did you decide to incorporate three timelines, and what was special about these particular moments in history?

I wanted to write a multiple-timeline story for two reasons. It was important to me to make the point that male violence and control have continued through the ages, sadly to this day. That's why I started with Altha in 1619—in England, this was just the beginning of the witch-hunt frenzy, which worsened alongside the political situation throughout that century. Altha's trial is completely fictional, but was inspired by the infamous Pendle witch trials in 1612, and the 1619 trial of Joan, Margaret, and Philippa Flower (which I read about in Tracy Borman's excellent book Witches: James I and the English Witch Hunts). In each of these real-life examples, families of predominantly women—in which females were the main or sole breadwinners— were targeted.

The middle of the twentieth century was also an interesting time in terms of gender dynamics. As Europe was ravaged by the Second World War, women were entering the workforce by necessity, and gaining independence, in a way they hadn't previously. But...