Something in the air

Devon author KATE BROWN reveals that what inspires her is pretty close to home, as childhood memories help shape her new book

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HERE are bears in your woods," the little girl said with authority, legs swinging over the edge of the warm leather car seat.

"No!" I clutched my new satchel to my chest. We were winding our way down the leafy, sunlit dappled lane towards the Exe Valley for school, and as we slowed behind a herd of cows crossing from the fields to the milk parlour, I saw Mum glance in the rear-view mirror, her eyes wide, obviously considering whether there were actually bears in Devon.

After that, I eyed the dense woods surrounding our new home with caution. Bears, it turned out, were the least of a five-year-old's worries. My new friends soon regaled me with all the local folklore - hairy hands that grabbed at steering wheels on the moor road, wild beasts that terror-ised flocks of sheep, mysterious lights in the sky. Stoodleigh is an old, isolated village, the highest point between Exmoor and Dartmoor - anything seemed possible. The village is small, (beneath the 'please-drive-slowly-through-the-village' sign, someone scrawled 'else you'll miss it'), but the views are heart-stopping. A two-mile-long, narrow lane was cut into the hillside when the big house - Stoodleigh Court, was built. Local legend has it that the house was built for a politician's paramour. She disliked the isolated spot, and for many years the house lay empty, like an enchanted castle.