Meet the Author: Polly Crosby

We so excited to bring you one of January's best new releases, The Unravelling Polly Crosby. This dark and mysterious and immersive tale comes from the author of The Illustrated Child, one of the most popular books of LoveMyRead's 2020 curation.

We sat down with the author to get her thoughts on the title and hear more about the type of reader she hopes enjoys the novel...

From the author:

Dear reader,

Thank you so much for choosing The Unravelling. I’m a country girl at heart, and I adore nature. When I began writing the story, I wanted to create a mystery buried deep within a tangled wilderness. I’m fascinated by man’s relationship with the natural world, how we use it to our advantage, often scarring the land beyond recognition. And yet when we leave nature to heal, it often flourishes all over again. It is this idea that planted like a seed in my mind when I began to write The Unravelling.

I’m overjoyed to be a part of LoveMyRead. In this fast-moving world, there’s something deliciously luxurious about waiting each month for the clatter of the letterbox as a new hand-picked book lands with a thud on the doormat. I do hope you enjoy the story.

Q&A:

What type of person do you hope reads your book?

The Unravelling is about a mysterious island where nature has taken over, growing so wild that all of the land’s secrets have been covered up. If you enjoy delving into mysteries, then this book is for you.

What's the most unexpected thing you learnt while writing the book?

I learnt so much when researching for the story! The Unravelling deals with lots of natural phenomena, from butterflies to pearls to silkworms. One of the things I found most fascinating is that although silk moths have wings, they are unable to fly because the ability has been bred out of them. Isn’t that unutterably sad?

What's your favourite first line in literature?

My favourite first line is from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.’ I read this book for the first time many years ago, and now I dip into it at least once a year. It’s my go-to comfort book.

Is there one book you wished you'd written? Why?

So many! Of recent reads I adored Piranesi by Susannah Clarke, and also Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Both authors are such good storytellers. The worlds they build are so real you feel as if you’re walking in them alongside the characters.

What are you working on next?

I’ve just finished writing my third novel. It’s a historical story set in the 1930s and the 1990s. It’s about a young woman who breaks into a derelict mansion. Inside, she is shocked to find a mysterious portrait of herself that was painted forty years before she was born.