Sally-Anne Martyn on Folk Horror, The Wicker Man and The Witch Elm

Sally-Anne Martyn, author of the folk horror novel The Witch Elm, discusses how her Derbyshire upbringing shaped her writing. Born in 1973, the same year The Wicker Man was released, Martyn grew up surrounded by village traditions including corn dollies, well dressings, and stone circle legends. She first watched The Wicker Man on New Year’s Eve in her mid-twenties and became a folk horror fan. While praising the film, she critiques the Maypole dancing scene’s execution. Martyn draws inspiration from local folklore, including the Nine Ladies stone circle, Rowtor Rocks, and Derbyshire witchcraft stories like those of Mrs Stafford and the Wise Woman of Killamarsh. She notes that small communities with ancient traditions provided ideal material for writing about the weird, and that her Derbyshire heritage remains central to her work despite living elsewhere.

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