There are several seasonal traditions that found their way into the book that made it inextricably bound up with Christmas. But this time, the ideas that began to twine together in my mind were really more specific than that. Well, I do love winter in general – some of my favourite trips away have been to Iceland and the Swedish Arctic Circle, and I’ve set several short stories at that time of year as well as my first novel, A Cold Season.
Why Christmas in particular and not just winter? I also started to read up on some of the older, darker midwinter festivals and traditions, and so Mistletoe began to develop. There was also a belief that it could be used to contact the dead, which fitted my purposes perfectly. It’s a plant that’s rooted in stories, if you’ll excuse the pun – from druids to Norse legend, Greek myth and beyond. I’m also slightly obsessed with folklore, and early on I read about the lore surrounding mistletoe. I really wanted to write a novel that would fit into that tradition, though I decided to set it in contemporary times with the ghosts themselves offering glimpses into the past. Having written two books set in Victorian times, I was very conscious of the tradition for Christmas ghost stories that grew throughout the era.
What was the inspiration behind Mistletoe? ‘Tis the season to be scared! With her Christmas ghost story, Mistletoe, now available in paperback, December seemed the perfect month to talk to Alison Littlewood about why we have such a love of ghost stories at this time of year.
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