We Stop By Nottingham's Waterstones to Hear From A Day of Fallen Night Author Samantha Shannon

The upstairs floor of Waterstones was already so full by the time I arrived that a member of staff had to shut off the escalator to prevent a dangerous bottleneck from emerging. It was a good sign. 

The good-natured crowd was greeted by Derby-based writer and author of the excellent Wild and Wicked Things Francesca May as they slowly filled the room. Francesca also posed questions to Samantha, who, with wonderful understatement, described as “quite nice” the feeling of being back on the road again. 

So began a delightful evening which set out to mark the publication of A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha’s latest work, which stands as a prequel to 2019’s The Priory of the Orange Tree. Originally intended to be a standalone, and now likely to be the first of a, um, series of standalones, Priory is a feminist reimagining of the legend of St George. 

Samantha has been a published writer since 2012, when she signed a six-figure book deal with Bloomsbury Publishing for her first novel, The Bone Season. Among the things she revealed during her insightful talk was that she was planning to rewrite the Bone Season with the benefit of her ten years of experience. Your correspondent naturally bought a copy of the original, with a view to comparing it to the updated version, Star Wars-style. 

Samantha spoke about her writing process, such as the influence her academic background in English Language and Literature has on her worldbuilding process. She also described the surreal experience of writing a fictional pandemic while a real one was raging outside, and how once a book is written, it’s out there and people can interpret it as they will. She provided an insight into how she drew on real history in her worldbuilding, too. 

Of particular interest was her views on women and how they are represented in fantasy fiction. She offered her thoughts on strong female characters (and Strong Female Characters ™). She spoke of writing a desire to show different types of strong women, not only those who, like Katniss Everdeen, displayed what were seen as traditionally “masculine” traits. Similarly, she felt it was important to celebrate different types of women in her work, including older women who are often invisible to media. She simultaneously spoke of rejecting motherhood and celebrating mothers, and of making sure that the contribution that her male characters made was not denigrated.

Finally, the floor was opened to questions from the room, which included everything from whether she had any novellas planned through to who her least favourite character is. One observation Samantha made is that she has a habit of naming unlikeable characters “Carl”. That said, even the Carls of the world will be sure to be intrigued by Samantha’s blend of worldbuilding, strong female characters and historical research. 

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon is available in bookstores now. Read our interview with the author on our website