Thin Places and Tidal Shores: Lindisfarne, Holy Island, With LK Wilde

Transcript

Jo: Hello Travelers. I’m Jo Frances Penn, and today I’m here with LK Wilde. Welcome, Laura.

Laura: Hello. Thank you for having me.

Jo: It’s great to have you on. So little introduction. Laura is the award-winning author of historical fiction, romance, and uplifting feel-good fiction. Her novel Silver Darlings is set on the Northumberland Island of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, here in England, which we are talking about today. So just to get us started.

Where is Lindisfarne? How big is it? What makes it so special?

Laura: It’s quite a famous place considering how small it is. It is off the coast of Northumberland, which for those who don’t know, it’s probably about halfway between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

It’s really close to the Scottish border, and it’s a tidal island, so you can get across twice a day, there’s a road to drive across and it’s about eight or nine miles round, and there’s a population about 150. So you’ve got a very small village in one tiny corner of the island and then a big nature reserve. But it’s got quite an important historical significance considering when you look on a map, it’s a tiny little pinprick.

Jo: It is really small. And so you said the eight or nine miles, just so people know, you can easily walk around that?

Laura: You could. There’s not a path all the way around, so you’d have to do a bit of scrambling over rocks and things. But yes, you could definitely walk around it.

Jo: As you said, really near the borders. And when I was there, only briefly, which we’ll come back to, but on that one side you are looking towards the coast of England. On the other side, what do you see looking off the other side?

Laura: You can see the Farne Islands, which are a cluster of islands a bit further down the coast. And then a lot of sea.

Jo: Exactly. And that’s the way the Vikings came, right?

Laura: Yes. And I think you can still almost get that a bit in the accent. It’s quite unique. The accent on the island is a real mixture of Newcastle and Northeast and Scottish and they have their own words and things. I wonder how much influence from Scandinavian is in there too.

Jo: That’s interesting. Do you speak that accent?

Laura: No. I had to get a narrator to record the audiobook for me because I’ve tried, and when I went to school there, everyone used to say “Aye” instead of “Yes” when you did the register. And for me, with my very obvious Southern accent, it was so embarrassing.

Jo: It’s great that you mention the accent because, for people listening who aren’t English or from the UK, it’s not that far. From where I am in Bath and you are in Cornwall, I mean, this is in our country and you can get there in a five or six hours train journey, I would think, and I was there and I also felt like an outsider with my accent. I didn’t really understand some of what people were saying, which really shocked me. I just wasn’t expecting that.

Laura: No, it’s so different. People used to talk about a “muckle bari gaji,” which would mean a very attractive young man, but it’s just a whole set of words I’d never heard of. There’s quite a lot of examples like that. It makes it a very unique place, I think.

Jo: I think that’s right. You said you went to school there, you lived there as a child. Tell us a bit about that.

What do you remember from that time?

Laura: So I moved there when I was 14 and I lived there till I was 18 and I was there with my younger sister and brother.

My memories are in two categories, either extremely positive or extremely negative. I think with the passage of time, you tend to forget the boring moments in your life.

But living there, there were no boring moments. It was either brilliant or terrible. And the good bits were amazing. The freedom of living somewhere like that. We’d come from a city, so there, we had our door open all the time. People would just come in and out as they wanted to.

We could go off in the morning and my mom was fine with us coming back late at night and my brother was seven. So for him especially to have that freedom was really incredible. It’s for a relatively short period in my life. It’s probably the most significant group of years, I would say. Because it’s such a unique experience to live somewhere like that.

Not just the remoteness, but everything that comes with island life.

Jo: Well let’s get into that. So the freedom you said and the safety of being there, and I guess the natural side of things, but as a teenager, between the ages of 14 and 18, what were some of those negatives?

Laura: Well, I think the main negative was when we weren’t on the island. There’s a primary school there and when we first arrived, all the national press came up because my brother was the only pupil in the school, and it was all in the papers that he was saving the island school.

But for me and my sister, we would be picked up on a Monday morning outside our house with our suitcases and we’d be taken to a hostel in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the nearest town, and we would be there until the taxi came on Friday afternoon to take us home. So we effectively had to leave home. And it wasn’t like being in a boarding school where you’d have all that support. There were two wardens, but they had their own flats. You didn’t really see them. And it was a building that had been built for 30 to 40 kids. But by the time we were there, there were only five of us.

So there were whole sections of this building that were shut off. And actually it was so bad that we were the last kids to be part of that setup. After us, they changed the system so kids would go to a local boarding school where they’d have all that support.

Jo: Well, I think, I mean, really what you’re talking about, it sounds like the middle of nowhere. And that’s what’s so interesting because it is, Northumberland really does have a lot of remote areas, but it feels like you said Berwick-on-Tweed, it’s not that far to Edinburgh from there. So you weren’t in the middle of nowhere. But let’s, coming back to the island itself. So you mentioned island life.

What does island life mean?

Laura: I think it means very different things depending on why you are there. Which group you fall into.

So there’s the religious community there and we were there because my dad was a church minister and he was sent there to – there was a church which had had no members anymore, and his job was to turn it into a visitor center. So we fell between these two groups where you had the religious community and then you had the everyday islanders who would do work in hospitality or fishing, or all sorts of other things. So I think within this one, very small community, people are living extremely different experiences.

And as a teenager it was, we were removed from some of the politics within the community. The best times were in the holidays when other kids, like grandchildren of islanders would come and stay or holiday makers, and suddenly you’d have friends and you’d have people to hang around with, but it also meant the times that they weren’t there, we were with people of all ages.

I think it gave us lots of skills in later life to be able to relate to people, not just our peers. Because we’d be going to these music groups with people in their sixties from all different backgrounds and things like that. So it is a very small community, but lots of different lifestyles within it.

Jo: For your book, Silver Darlings, why did you want to revisit the island, and what community aspects did you bring in for that book?

Laura: I wanted to revisit it. First of all, I started off with a memoir and writing about my experiences of living there as a teenager, but so much happened to our family. We went there as a what I considered a very strong family unit, and left as a broken family.

My parents had separated, and so we all left separately, so I realized I couldn’t do anything with it. It was too personal. But I still wanted to capture that feeling of being a young person on the island. And then I started looking into the fishing heritage because the Celtic Christianity and everything is so famous and so many people go their own pilgrimage to experience that and the history.

But there’s this whole period where the entire island was focused on fishing and everyone on the island was part of that community, and it was far more cohesive as a community than I think it probably is or certainly was when I was living there.

And I really wanted to experience myself through these characters, what that side of it would’ve been like. And how all these, so I had people I knew in mind, like there was this lovely old fisherman called Eddie who was just a wonderful island character. And I had people like him in mind while I was telling this historical story. But I suppose it was a way as well of me revisiting this place that I loved so much that had been so important to me that I couldn’t tell through my own story, but I could inhabit these fictional characters and tell it through theirs.

Jo: Yeah, the personal side of memoir is tough and I understand that. It’s interesting and, obviously we don’t need to get into why your family broke up, but one of the nightmares that I feel as someone who is an urban city girl, I mean, I love being in nature, but I want to know I’m coming back to the city.

I like to be able to walk to a bookshop and some restaurants and coffee shops and all that. And when I was on the island just one night, I was like, this is fantastic, but oh my goodness. It’s so small and everyone would know your business and everybody would know everyone. And like you said, the positive is it’s safe and people look out for you, but the negative is really there’s no privacy. There’s no way of being different.

A lot of people say island life is quite insular and people want to stop you from being different. And so to be different you have to leave. Is that something you recognize?

Laura: Yeah, definitely. That feeling of lack of privacy. And I think because we had such an open house as well, there were people, like even when my parents went away for a week and I was there on my own, people would wander in and out of my house, and you’re never – everybody knows everything that’s going on. And as a teenager, sometimes you want to let loose a bit, but you can’t really because there’ll be someone there watching you.

Jo: That’s interesting. Okay, so you mentioned the religious side of the community and the Celtic side. A lot of people won’t know the history, so maybe just —

Tell us a bit about the religious history.

Laura: So it’s a very famous site of Celtic Christianity. I think it was about 635 AD. King Oswald of Northumberland invited Aidan, St. Aidan now, and some other monks from the Scottish island of Iona to come and set up a monastery on the island.

And it became an incredibly important Christian site for spreading Christianity throughout the kingdom of Northumberland. And then after, so Aiden became Bishop of the island, and then after him, St. Cuthbert became the bishop.

And I think it was during St. Cuthbert’s time that the Lindisfarne Gospels were written, which are very famous illustrated, incredibly beautiful, unique pieces of artwork. And people came on pilgrimages and St. Cuthbert is still very much celebrated. The church that my dad was turning into visitor center was called St. Cuthbert’s.

And there’s St. Cuthbert’s Island, you may have seen it, when you are near St. Mary’s church, you go down to the beach and there’s an island off the island.

Jo: It’s got a little cross on, I think.

Laura: So sometimes people will go there and sit at tide out on that tiny island and just contemplate. So it was a really important site and then the Vikings came and destroyed everything that had been there. And then later, they set up a priory on the island so that you can still see the remains of that. Now you can walk around the ruins of the priory. So it still has that legacy of being extremely important in the spread of Christianity.

Jo: And the sacrifice of those monks who were raided, and it was one of the first documented Viking raids, was on the island.

Laura: Yeah, it’s pretty interesting history and it’s kind of the first place you would land. You come over and you hit Lindisfarne and you would see what was a rich pilgrimage center and the monks had money and obviously you’re going to go raid it. That’s what you’re going to do.

But yes, St. Cuthbert’s, the St Cuthbert’s way, which is part of the pilgrimage walk. Yeah. Fantastic walk from where he started in Melrose in Scotland. And for people who don’t know, his relic, part of his body is still in Durham Cathedral. Part of me thinks it should be on Lindisfarne, but it just wouldn’t cope with the number of visitors, I guess.

Jo: No, I think it would be logistically tricky.

Laura: I mean, it’s a miracle that they managed to get him and also the gospels out and down to Durham. Because the Vikings, it wasn’t just one raid. They kept coming back. So there was a lot lost – a lot of important historical things and money and property and all sorts. But to have saved St. Cuthbert and the gospels is quite remarkable.

Jo: Yeah. And you can go to a cave where supposedly his body rested overnight. And it’s interesting, of course, because we’re not Catholic anymore. This is not a Catholic country. And your dad would not have been Catholic. And the church now on Lindisfarne is not Catholic. And yet that’s where it all came from.

I find it quite funny sometimes, this discussion of relics and the body of St. Cuthbert and all of that when it’s like, that’s not quite what the religion is anymore. So how do you think that was dealt with, this sort of Catholic history and the modern?

There is a spiritual sense there now, isn’t there? I almost say it’s beyond Christian. It’s spiritual.

Laura: I think it is. I think a lot of people coming there now come for a much broader spiritual feeling.

And the Catholic side is still, there is a Catholic, a small Catholic church on the island. And there are big services and pilgrimages at Easter, for example, but I think the Catholic side of it is far less dominant. It’s far more about the spirituality and Celtic Christianity almost as a brand is perhaps the wrong word, but I think in recent years, Celtic Christianity and spirituality has really become far more popular outside of its Catholic origins, I think.

And there is a feeling you get from – I think you mentioned ‘a thin place’ in Pilgrimage, didn’t you? And that would often be mentioned when I was living there.

This is a thin place and we would have people come and stay with us who were extremely rational people who would never go in for anything otherworldly who would have experiences there or feel certain strong feelings that they’d never experienced anywhere else before.

And whether it’s partly being cut off twice a day or whether it’s the history, I don’t know what it is, but there is something almost intangible, but you just feel it when you are there. It’s quite special.

Jo: So do you have any feelings of that thin place? Are there any experiences that you would look back on as that, or did you get that sense?

Laura: I think I got that through the natural beauty of it.

So although I was raised in a city, I was always far happier in the countryside and it was when I would go off exploring and I would go on the North Shore and just walk and this long sandy beach and that’s when I would feel that sense of something special.

Not when I was in a church or because actually often there were squabbles between the religious communities and there was a human side that wasn’t always that nice, but when I was out in nature and you get these huge, wide skies on the island, and that’s when I would feel it.

And it definitely does something to you, I think, especially if you are on your own, and I would go off – I mean, I wasn’t a very typical teenager living on an island. But I would just go off for hours walking on my own or on my bike, and you feel this thin place, I suppose.

Jo: And is that God, for you, was it God back then? Is it God now or is it something broader?

Laura: I think back then it would’ve been far more straightforward for me than it would’ve been God.

I think now, I really don’t know. I don’t really subscribe to organized religion these days, but I still, normally still feel – I still experience that spiritual feeling when I am somewhere beautiful.

Or when I’m swimming in the sea, that’s a time I’ll get that kind of feeling that you can’t really name, but you feel surely there’s got to be a creator to have made somewhere so magical.

Jo: Yeah. And it’s funny, obviously my book Pilgrimage being about these pilgrimages and yet not being a Christian and yet also a lot of the feelings the same as you.

And one of the times I really felt it and I still get goosebumps even right now thinking about it when I crossed over to Lindisfarne, walking over the Sands and it really was one of the most spiritual moments I think, of my life.

There was a sound and I didn’t know what it was, and then I realized it was the seals singing and there’s a lot of seals in that channel. And of course it’s a bird sanctuary, so there were so many birds and you’re following.

And I had my back to the road. There is a road, but I had my back to the road and I was kind of trying to ignore it. But there, as you know, there are these white poles leading you across the sand to the island, and I just felt this, I think this timelessness of how many other feet have walked this, how many pilgrims, the monks. I mean there’s, well, at least 1800 years of history.

But before that, there would’ve always been islanders, people living on that island. And so that was kind of a moment that it really hit me.

Tell us a bit more about the nature of the island or any aspects of the nature reserve and all of that.

Laura: I think what I love most about it is especially when the causeway’s open, the village will be packed. And the ruined priory will be packed. And there are people everywhere and you either you can walk to the castle and walk along, or you go down a little farm track and there’s nobody.

And my favorite place would be to go to the sand dunes and there’s little pools among the sand dunes as well. But when I was on my own, you’ve got these massive expanses of sand dunes and then you climb and you’ve got these huge stretches of beach and you’ve got the seals and you’ve got all the birds. There’s a bird hide that you can go and just spent hours watching.

You’ve got the coast all around, and then you’ve got these little pools and the nature reserve and the birds, and in a place where there’s quite a lot of people and chaos packed into one corner, just this wide expansion to walk and see seals, just sunbathing.

Or just spend a time sitting on a sand dune and just watching all the birds go around you is really special. And it’s something that never grew old. I think sometimes you can live in a beautiful place and you stop seeing it, but I think there, you never stop seeing it. You are always aware that just down the end of a path, you’re gonna have this open space where you can just breathe and experience a bit of peace, I suppose.

Jo: Yeah. And I think Northumberland also is one of the areas of dark sky. You know, the dark sky areas where you can actually see the stars without so much light pollution.

When I was walking out that way and on that beach, looking out to sort of Norway, there’s lots of rock cairns. When I went, people had built rocks up in piles.

And then as I was walking back I saw a murmuration of, I guess it was one of the swifts or something, and I always think when you see a murmuration, and for people listening, if you don’t know, it’s when all the birds kind of flock in patterns and they make patterns in the air. And when I’ve seen them and I’ve seen them, I saw them at Stonehenge as well.

And that was again, in one of those moments of like, that’s incredible. It was like, okay, there’s definitely something, again, that thin place, and you feel just part of nature and it puts life in perspective when you just stop for a moment and you notice that you are part of this, you know, a human in nature. And the morning I got up and I had my coffee in a little flask and watched the seals in the water.

And it’s so funny because I was only there for one night and I think about going back a lot and yet I’m kind of worried about going back because it was so perfect. That 24 hours or whatever it was that I was there.

Have you been back? Has it changed your mind since?

Laura: Yes. I didn’t go back for a very long time. I went, so when did I leave? I left in 2000. I did go back while I was at uni to stay with some friends once, but for a couple of nights, and then I didn’t go back again till 2008 when I had my son as a baby.

But literally because so much happened there, it is quite a hard place to go back to. So I went back on the island, had a quick walk round and left again. And then it was last year I finally felt ready to properly go back again and I took – it was just me and my two sons and they were the ages me and my sister were when we moved there. And I took them up there and it was incredibly healing.

Going there reminded me of all the things I loved about it. And seeing it through their eyes. So I’ve got a picture of them standing on top of these really tall sand dunes, just with their arms in the air cheering and seeing how much they loved it and hearing them say, “wow, this must have been an amazing place to live.” And it was really – I’m so pleased I did it.

I mean, it was a beautiful, sunny day we went, we didn’t – we were meant to stay on the island and then there was a flood where we were staying, so we had to stay on the mainland. And I was quite pleased in a way, because we spent two days there, but we could retreat at the end of the day and I could just process all these things.

And on the second day I went and actually saw some people I’d known while I was there and just felt at peace in this place and showed the boys where we used to live and showed them where my brother went to school. So I’m really pleased I did go back. Me and my sister are talking about going back together at some point, but it’s a very long way from Cornwall.

Jo: It is. Yeah. Cornwall itself is very big compared to Lindisfarne! It is interesting, isn’t it? Revisiting these places that mean so much.

I also feel like the situation I was in, which was I was recovering – it was the end of the pandemic. I was still sick. I was in a lot of pain and it was a real struggle. And so I did feel like, and so often the end of a pilgrimage is, there’s a real letdown because the journey is kind of the point.

And yet when I crossed over, it just felt so magic. But let’s give some people some real practical tips because hopefully now everyone’s like, oh my goodness, I really wanna go to Lindisfarne.

Let’s talk about the crossing and the practicalities. If people want to drive or they want to walk, what do they need to be aware of?

Laura: You have to check the tide times.

There are lots of places online that you can check when it’s safe to cross and absolutely do not risk it. As teenagers, one of our sports – word would spread that a car was stuck on the causeway, and we’d go down on our bikes and laugh. You don’t want that happening to you if you go, so be really careful to only cross when the internet or the sign by the side of the road tells you it’s safe to cross.

There is a rescue tower. You can go up halfway if you do get stuck, but that is not for cars. Fun to go up and have a look, but you don’t want your car to be submerged and you’re waiting for the RNLI to come and get you.

So make sure to check the tide times. And it’s worth being there, I think over a tide. Because it’s such a different experience. So if the tides work out that you can spend a few hours there with the tide in, that’s definitely worth doing.

But be very careful crossing whether on foot or in a car.

Jo: Yeah. I didn’t know whether I would be able to walk across, because the other thing is the weather, right? I mean, I was there and it was beautiful. I just had the most perfect crossing with the sun.

Talk a bit about the mist and the rain and the weather up there.

Laura: Oh, I have a memory. There was a year where I think it was May, and we knew that it was beautiful May weather everywhere else, but it was just misty, and it was misty every single day in May. My birthday’s in May, which is probably why I also remember it so clearly, and it gets really depressing when you go out of your house and everywhere else the sun is shining, but it’s cold. You can only see a couple of meters in front of you. It’s mentally very challenging, I think. Because you feel so cut off from the rest of the world.

Jo: And you can’t see the coast. That’s the thing, I think that’s the mist is not just a light mist that disappears. It’s like you can’t actually see the land and that’s when you can get lost.

And there are stories obviously, of people trying to walk across and then just ending up missing the poles, that kind of thing. And in fact a lot of people, when I said I was walking across, they said, oh no, don’t do that. It’s too dangerous.

Laura: It’s quite – there’s some quick sand isn’t there? Or sinking sand.

You have to be careful to stick to the right route. You have to stick to the route, and if it’s nice weather, you can see the route all the way across and you’re like, why is everyone going on about this?

But of course, the mist, I think, so what I would say to people is, as you said as well, the tide moves every day. The tide times move every day. If people don’t know that it’s not the same time every single day, and so you really do have to be ready to cross and then come back. Also we should say it’s very small. You have to, if you want to stay, you have to book accommodation way in advance, right?

Laura: Yeah. And another thing about crossing actually just to not alarm people, but if you are there and it looks safe to cross. But the tide time says it’s not, just don’t risk it because it comes so quickly. It looks like the road is clear and then it’ll just wash right across.

Laura: But for staying there, you really have to book in advance. But for us it worked well staying – we stayed in Spittal, which is just outside Berwick-upon-Tweed. It’s about 10 miles away, the last time I went and actually that worked well. But I think if you can, if you’ve never been before.

I think staying on the island is quite a unique experience and well worth doing if you can.

Jo: Yeah, definitely. I would say it’s well worth it.

And also if you just go across when everyone else does – when I walked off the sand, I only saw a couple of other people walking and I sat down to put my shoes on and then I walked along the road and around the corner and there’s like a coach park with hundreds of people streaming off the coaches, and I’m like there with my backpack and I’m like, whoa. Okay. So it can be quite a very touristy experience or a spiritual experience, I suppose.

Laura: So much of that is how you time it, I think.

Jo: Yes. When you’re there. Yeah, so I definitely think you have to do research. So what I did with the research was, because I wanted to walk across, I looked at the dates when I could walk across on the tide and book accommodation. And then I worked backwards from there to when I needed to start the pilgrimage.

Laura: That is very organized.

Jo: But I mean, I think it’s really important.

We should also just say something about the food, because I seriously had the best fish soup I’ve ever had in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Seriously. I’ve never had better, I guess some would call it chowder, but tell us about – you’ve mentioned the fishing, I suppose, but the fish is really good, isn’t it?

Laura: Yeah. And there’s – well, I’m not sure, it probably depends on the time of year, but there always used to be plenty of places to get a fresh crab sandwich.

Jo: Oh yes. I had one of those too.

Laura: So that’s definitely worth trying. And there are hotels on the island where you can eat with plenty of fish on offer. And I’m assuming that they use – well, I worked in a hotel when I was there many years ago and they served a lot of lobster. Because lobster and crab are caught off the island. So, yeah, it’s definitely worth trying some of the local cuisine. And of course there’s the mead, the Lindisfarne mead.

Jo: Oh. Tell us more about the mead.

Laura: I think that comes from – that was a drink the monks had, I think, and it’s made from honey, but it’s very strong. So be careful. But you can sample it in the mead shop. It’s very strong alcohol and very sweet. So it’s not something I’d probably go for now because I don’t really like sweet things, but something I wouldn’t give to my teenage boys because they’d probably knock it back.

Jo: Yeah. Tourist mead. Absolutely. But definitely visit the ruins of the priory there and the church. It’s a wonderful time. Well, I think we could talk about this forever, but this is the Books and Travel podcast.

What are a few books about Lindisfarne or Northumberland that you recommend?

Guest: Well, the first, I know not everyone will be seeing this on video, but I thought I would show, my husband bought this for me, which is the Lindisfarne Gospels. It’s a British Library guide and this is just gorgeous. It’s got beautiful images of the Lindisfarne Gospel, so that’s a really good one.

Jo: And just on that, people can see, sometimes they can see the Lindisfarne Gospels at the British Library in London. But it’s all online as well. So if you’re like, oh, I’d like to see more detail, it is online. But that looks like a lovely book.

Laura: They are exceptional. It’s definitely worth having a look.

And then fiction wise, I’m absolutely obsessed with Ann Cleeves, who does the Vera and Shetland books, but her Vera series is all set in Northumberland. There is one on the island, I think it’s called The Rising Tide , but she manages to capture that open sky beauty of the county whilst also shining a light on what it’s like to live in one of the communities there and because often the seaside towns are quite poor. So I’d recommend any of her Vera series.

And then these aren’t strictly books, but if you go on the Islandshire Archives, there’s information there about the fishing history of the island, which is so interesting. And there’s articles by, I think she’s called Katrina Porteous, who’s done this study of fishing and how the whole community was involved.

And then my last recommendation would be the British Newspaper Archive where you can search a place going back hundreds of years and get a glimpse into what life was like there. And if you search Holy Island, there are reports of things like weddings where they have unique customs like jumping over a petting stone and they still do these today. Or the fishermen stand with their guns and the bride and groom walk through, and they shoot the guns in the air and that’s all reported.

I think if you’re going to visit anywhere probably in the UK and you want a slice of what real life is like, it’s worth going on the British newspaper archive. Just select a random year, like 1953 or something and see what’s happening and have a look.

[Note from Jo: I also have two books that feature Lindisfarne:

• Pilgrimage: Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways. One of my pilgrimages was the St Cuthbert’s Way which finishes on Lindisfarne
• Day of the Vikings, an ARKANE Thriller. When a Viking relic at the British Museum becomes the target of a neo-pagan cult, ARKANE agent Morgan Sierra finds herself trapped inside the museum with a group of ruthless extremists. The cult’s leader, a fierce Valkyrie, believes the artifact holds the power of the Viking gods—and she will stop at nothing to claim it. The modern day thriller includes flashbacks to the Viking raid on Lindisfarne, and the Lindisfarne Gospels. It is book 5 of my ARKANE series, but can also be read as a stand-alone book. You can read the ebook for free at JFPenn.com/free.

Jo: Tell us a bit about Silver Darlings, if people would like to read that.

Laura: Silver Darlings is really about two young people who grow up on the island in the early 1900s, and for separate reasons, they’re both forced to leave the island and they follow the herring trade down the east coast of England to Lowestoft.

And they reach the time of the First World War and it’s about whether they can find each other and whether they can find their way back to the island. And it’s really about what does it mean to be home? What does home mean to you?

And they both have very different ideas about whether the island is or isn’t home and why. It’s a historical romance, but I love social history and ordinary lives and the herring girls and how women had a bit of independence when it was quite hard to do that.

Jo: I was going to finish, but I get obsessed with the idea of home because I also struggle with it. And you’ve talked about how much you love Lindisfarne, but you are now in Cornwall.

Where is home for you?

Laura: That’s a question I think about all the time, and I think I try and find the answer through my books. So my books are either set on Holy Island, in Norwich, where I was born, or in Cornwall or something. And I think through writing them, I’m trying to figure out where do I actually belong. I don’t really know.

I mean, Cornwall’s where I’ve lived the longest now, but I know I’ll never be Cornish because you have to be about five generations in to be Cornish. Norfolk’s where I was born, where a lot of my family are from, but I haven’t lived there for over 20 years.

And Holy Island is such a special place to me, but I don’t sound like I’m from there. I wasn’t born there. I almost don’t feel I have the right to call it home. So I suppose, I don’t know. I still haven’t figured out the answer to that.

Jo: Nor me, although I’ve decided I am English. So perhaps you’re English too.

Laura: Well, except my brother recently did a DNA test and it turns out we’re also quite Welsh, so just in case.

Jo: To be fair, I’m also Scottish and Irish, but yeah, there we go.

Where can people find you and your books online?

Laura: So LKWilde.com. You can find out all about me and then I’m on social media. The usual Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Just search LK Wilde and I will pop up everywhere.

Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Laura. That was great.

Laura: Thank you for having me.