First Howl: Persephone

I've been fascinated by Persephone's story and how Pluto spirited her away down to the Greek Underworld to be his bride; it contains threads of my all-time favourite story, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, with its tale of a dark bride and, in a way, it's the original "spirited away to a fantasy world" tale with Pluto bringing her down to the Greek Underworld in order to make her his wife. Much darker than Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. That the story ends, essentially, with Pluto winning and Persephone having to live there every winter. That added a sad, emotional, dark aspect to the Seasons for me.

When I wrote First Howl, it made sense for the disturbed, quirky lady in the castle to be called Persephone. I had this vision of Helena Bonham Carter, leaves in her hair, twigs, insects etc. Persephone never grew up because the regal world she lived in enabled her to never grow up. At the time, when I wrote First Howl, I was studying at Bath Spa and there was a girl at the campus at the time called Molly, whose head was full of air, and she was in a relationship with the president of the comedy society, Jake, and that's who I based Sir Pleasance on.

Persephone may be called Persephone but the Castle segment of First Howl, and its Persephone/ Pluto undertones, is really Sylvia's story. She is the Persephone spirited away, and Billy the Pluto; the twist being that Billy is nice and actually quite sweet, and it is Sylvia who turns into a wolf and eats him.