As we approach Halloween, I figured it was time to get a little gothic on the Lit With Charles podcast. My guest today is writer and literary champion Mairi Kidd, whose new novel Poor Creatures imagines the world of Mary Shelley before she wrote Frankenstein - the people around her, the ideas she was grappling with, and the forces that shaped one of the most enduring stories in literature.

Our conversation ranges from the radical literary circles of the early 19th century to the power of Scottish folklore and those places where the veil between worlds feels thin. It was such a pleasure to speak with Mairi, and learn a little bit more about a fascinating writer’s history.

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Mairi Kidd’s four books were:

• Possession, A. S. Byatt (1990)
• The Owl Service, Alan Garner (1967)
• Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1932)
• The Sea Road, Margaret Elphinstone (2000)