Berlie Doherty: How a mysterious and haunting pool inspired my new book
It wasn’t an easy climb; steep and stony. The sky was overcast, the drizzle seeped through our clothing, and underfoot the ground was squelchy with sodden grass and mud. We lost the path, and blundered on with the help of our instincts to find the place we had set our minds on reaching. The dark rocks of Kinder Scout loomed ahead in a swirl of mist. And then, at last, we found it, an upland mere far above any signs of population. The Mermaid Pool. The name had drawn me, and now as I stared through the reedy banks and into the peaty water I found myself longing for the surface to ripple and breathe into a shape of a lurking, living creature.
Why was it named after a mermaid? Mermaids belong to the mythology of the sea, and this pool in the Derbyshire Peaks was many miles from the sea in any direction. The sea is vast and wild. This dark, silent, still pool was surely no place for a mermaid, of all things!
Could it be that, many years ago, a young woman had fallen in and drowned there? Could she have been seen by a passing shepherd, her hair floating around her like golden reeds? Could a trick of sunlight on mist have caused an image a shimmering shape, a ghostly figure that rose up from the water and sank again without trace? Could the wind across the moors have sounded like a girl singing?
I shook these thoughts away and made my way slowly down and down towards the valley, green grass, farms and people. But the lonely pool, and its mysterious name, stayed with me and fascinated me for many years.
Then, a couple of years ago, Tamsin Rosewell and I began to talk about creating a picture book together. Tamsin had created beautiful artwork for the covers and chapter headings for three of my books (The Haunted Hills, Granny was a Buffer Girl and Children of Winter) but we had never actually created a book together. Our publisher Hazel Holmes (UCLan publishing) was very enthusiastic, and Tamsin and I got together by the magic of Zoom to talk about ideas. Tamsin suggested I should look at some local legends or mysteries. At the time, we both thought we were creating a picture book for young readers, perhaps a fairy story, but Hazel had other plans, and we were surprised to hear that she actually wanted us to work on a fully illustrated novella for young teenagers. What could it be about, where could it be set?
In my memory still there was the mysterious pool. ‘There’s a mermaid pool’, I told Tamsin. ‘A deep, dark pool on Kinder Scout, miles from the ocean.’ And that was it. Oh yes! Tamsin said. ‘Who is she? How did she get there? Why is she there?’ Gradually over the months and dreams and Zoom discussions, Tamsin’s visual images, the frequent sharing of thoughts and ideas, The Seamaiden’s Odyssey came to be.
So what is the story about? I created a family, a community living in the vast seas of the world. A seamaiden, Merryn, hates what her father the Lord of the Oceans has demanded of her, and makes a bid for freedom from all his expectations. But she finds she isn’t free, she’s far from home, trapped in a landlocked pool. She can’t find her way back. Is this a test, set by her father? Is it a curse that menfolk have put on her? Does she have the wisdom, wit, magic or inner power ever to find her way again?
Recently I made the trek up onto Kinder again. Would the mermaid pool still be there on the bleak moor, I wondered? Would it still be haunting and mysterious? And would I see a movement below the water, a ripple of light and dark that might be a shape of a lost and lonely girl from the sea?
The Seamaiden’s Odyssey is out in hardback now.
