Talking Location With… Caroline McGhie: NORTH NORFOLK
A mythological novel set in NORTH AFRICA
29th September 2025
Sycorax by Nydia Hetherington, a mythological novel set in North Africa.
Shortlisted for The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2025
Sycorax may be a familiar name to some. She is the witch, absent from the stage but exerting a strong presence in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written in the early years of the 17th Century. In this novel, the character is given a voice – it is a feminist take on her life, “seen through the 21st Century prism of chronic illness and disability…“. The novel is also loosely structured like a play, with Acts and Scenes, but maintains the integrity of a book.
Sycorax was born in an olive grove to Atlas, her mother, and Sunny, her father, and both parents understand that she carries the gift of magic, she has a connection to another unseen world. She has unusual eyes, an indicator of her powers, which her parents cover with muslin, giving her a curious look. Then fire ravages her hand. leaving it disfigured; her overall bodily pain increases as she ages, sharpening her wits and senses whilst degrading and disabling her physically.
The family keeps bees, a sure-fire way to keep in tune with the world, the bee activity resonating with the vagaries of life around them. Her mother sells tinctures and potions at the market and soothes a lion when it comes into town. Their family is indeed unusual and people find Sycorax, in particular, unsettling, as she moves through her life accompanied by a crow. (Curiously, last year’s winner of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2024 – Saltblood by Francesca de Tores – features a character, Mary (based on real life pirate Mary Read), who also has a crow in tow).
There is a magical and poignant quality to the novel, the writing is sharp and superbly lyrical and easy to read. The fantastical elements are tantalising and evocative as she grows and matures, facing challenges in every aspect of her life.
The sense of place, per se, is lyrically rendered but unspecified in the novel.
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