Author Sharon Blackie lives in a remote house in the Yorkshire Dales, with the River Eden running through her garden and a castle ruin said to be built by King Arthur's father. She shares this idyllic setting with her husband, three border collies, six sheep, and nine hens. Blackie, known for her books like 'If Women Rose Rooted' and 'Hagitude,' blends memoir, mythology, and eco-feminism to advocate for a better way of living.
Fairytales as Guidebooks for Modern Times
Blackie argues that fairytales are more relevant than ever in today's precarious world. In her new book 'Ripening,' she presents fairytales as guidebooks for navigating existential crises. 'The fairytale heroine always leaves home with catastrophe snapping at her heels,' she explains. 'They have nothing, yet through character qualities, they find a way to thrive.'
Blackie rejects updating these stories for modern readers, instead reclaiming them from Disneyfication. Her heroines often rescue themselves, using courage, grit, and wit. She aims to restore the 'wise old woman' archetype, drawing on Celtic folklore from her half-Irish, half-Scottish ancestry. Her favorite mythical being is the Cailleach, associated with winter and wilderness, which she sees as a powerful role model for today's challenges.
Confronting Fears and Finding Her Voice
Blackie wrote 'Hagitude'—'hags with attitude'—as she approached 60, feeling there was no place for older women in contemporary culture. 'I didn't know who I was supposed to be, and I wasn't ready to give up. I was just starting,' she says. Her first novel came out in 2008 when she was 46, but she found her voice with seven nonfiction titles in the past decade.
Growing up in industrial north-east England as the daughter of a single mother, Blackie never identified with princesses but with wise old women. Her father left when she was four, and her mother became an alcoholic. She escaped to Liverpool University, studied psychology, and later worked for a tobacco company. After a failed marriage, she fled to America but returned to the corporate world out of financial insecurity.
In her mid-30s, living in Kentucky, she realized she was 'frightened of life' and terrified of flying. The day after John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash, she booked flying lessons. Getting her pilot's license was a turning point. 'It changed everything. It was that sense of, OK, if I can do that, then I can do anything,' she says.
The Power of Place and Community
Blackie has moved frequently, always to deep countryside—Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and now the Lake District. 'Place has been by far the biggest teacher of my life,' she says. She acknowledges that following this thread is not easy for everyone but urges finding ways to step back and take stock. 'You have got to make the leap, and that requires some kind of courage,' she says.
She criticizes late capitalism's 'myth of more, more, more' and modern psychology's focus on individualism. 'The comfortable life causes spiritual decay,' she quotes English philosopher Colin Wilson. She emphasizes the importance of community, which she felt growing up despite hardship. 'You need to believe that there is something ahead that's worthwhile living for,' she says.
Health Journey and Renewal
During the pandemic, Blackie was diagnosed with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, caught just in time via a private scan. She is approaching five years in remission. She prefers images of renewal over battle in coming to terms with cancer. 'It was brutal, but it also changed everything. You're completely stripped bare. I came out of it thinking, OK, all these cells have been killed. Now it's all new. It's me,' she says.
Blackie has no regrets about not having children. She started her day at 4am, enjoying the dark and silence. 'It's the dark. It's the silence. It's that sense that nobody else is up. Then you have room for all of the images and the ideas that feed into the books,' she says.
Finding Home
When asked if she will stay in her current home, Blackie replies carefully, 'Every time I feel as if I need to make a big psychological shift there has been a reason to move that has come along with it. I'm not feeling that here.' Perhaps she has finally found her way home. Her book 'Ripening: Why Women Need Fairytales Now' is published by September Publishing.
