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Lisa Samson

I have just started my PhD in creative Writing under the supervision of Sara Maitland and Graham Mort. I live in Harrogate and I teach Creative Writing and Academic Writing at Leeds Metropolitan University. Lancaster University was where I did my B.A in English and Italian, so I'm delighted to be back here, albeit only remotely.

Within the first week of commencing my research, I discovered that two novels have been published, one in September and another in July, on the very topic I was embarking on: the construction of the Italian Chapel on Orkney during World War II. After reading one of the novels and investigating the other, I decided to abandon this topic for now, and am starting an entirely new novel about the life of a medieval woman living in Swaledale, Yorkshire. This was a story I first conceived of when I was walking the Corpse Way in Swaledale earlier this year, researching for a piece of literary non-fiction that I have subsequently published an anthology entitled A Wilder Vein. The story begins when the woman is a girl and her father is the Keeper of the Dead House, the half way resting place for the corpses while their pallbearers sought sustenance at the nearest inn. Little has been written about Swaledale during this period so research will be challenging but I'm already excited at the prospect.

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