I am Laina West, writing as L M West, and I live in Suffolk with my husband. It is a watery place, full of mystery, and tales of strangeness and magic.
The cliffs are crumbling, over the centuries whole towns have been consumed by the sea and the coastline is constantly changing and eroding.
There is a real sense of history, of time, in this place, a sense of ‘other worldliness’, and this is what I try to evoke in my writing.
As a child, I always wanted to write a book, but I never thought I could do it! I left school with three O-levels and hadn’t written anything before. Admittedly, 65 was a bit late to start, but I thought that if I was going to do it I’d better get on with it.
I took the opportunity of lockdown 2020 to do two online writing courses with Curtis Brown Creative (recommended!) and sat down to see what happened and my three books about local witchcraft trials are the result!
Although they were nearly four hundred years ago, the East Anglian witchcraft persecutions still feel alive and vivid today, in a world where women, in particular, are still sometimes mocked for their appearance and where the old become invisible. Those accused were not all old, nasty and malicious, as portrayed by the (mainly male) commentators, but often healers and herbalists, and the majority of them were women.
My fourth book, The Red Barn was inspired by a visit to Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds in 2019, when I went to look at their display of witchcraft artefacts. Alongside was a cabinet of items connected to William Corder. It caught my attention and I began to look into what had actually happened.
As I did so, I became conscious that the point of view of the victim, Maria Martin, had become almost lost in the swamp of newspaper articles, books, plays and songs about the case. Here was a further example of a woman’s voice being lost. How could I resist?
When I’m not reading and writing I paint, garden, walk, and natter.
You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram for news and updates about both books, or feel free to contact me below.
Are you a bookshop interested in stocking my books? My titles are now distributed by Bittern Books, so please email steve@bitternbooks.co.uk for full details.