It wasn’t actually my idea! It was my brilliant editor, Lucy. I wasn’t sure at first, and then the idea for the definition of ‘foxlight’ struck me, and how I could weave it into the story itself.
I was keen to write something a bit different, something set outside of the very contemporary worlds I’d been writing about previously. I didn’t want to go full fantasy, and I wanted to keep my favourite themes of wildness and love and hope and nature. I went for long walks in places like the South Downs and rural Wales, and the setting started to piece itself together in my mind.
I live in South London, and the foxes are so wild and bold. I would watch them playing from my window and it was like I was transported somewhere. I just think they are these incredible, beautiful, magical creatures that seem to tie the human and animal worlds together, but that also have this unknown quality about them. They’re so mysterious and they’ve been a part of folklore across lots of different cultures. I want to have a go at exploring their meaning and how they’re part of the fabric of our lives, across the world.
I just love writing about nature. I don’t want to get all Blakean, but I really think children have this incredible and special bond with the natural world, and it’s a privilege to write about that in my work.
That we are all part of stories, and that stories are part of us. That telling them can change who were are, who we were, and who we will become.
