Meet the author is a series of articles intended to introduce you to our wonderful authors. Learn about the books they’ve written, the spiritual pathways they’ve traversed and some fun little tidbits… introducing Sally Walker!

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Born in London.
Fled London.
Discovered not normal.
Respectable teacher on the outside.
Rebellious Witch inside.
Went as far West as poss.
Live as close to the edge without falling off as poss.
Spend full mooned nights in coven company,
Trying to fit fragments of Life’s Puzzle together.
Dance out frustrations.
Swim and sing with seals and selkie.
Dream lucid, delve deep down
in ancient lore, lost history, myths and the Mystery.
Like to listen to the past.
Love an open fire.
Love not normal.

What books have you written?

A Westerly Wind brings Witches, following a modern woman’s lifelong quest to salvage a healthy sense of self and unfold Meaning unique to herself. Full of ups and downs and odd happenings. The novel revisits the Burning Times, re-seeing our history through the eyes of the traditional Wisewoman, during an era when – from infancy – you feasted upon superstition and the supernatural along with your mother’s milk. When reality was magical.

How would you describe your spiritual pathway?

Like sailing out onto a vast unlit ocean, seeking far flung islands and distant panoramas, trying to plot a course through the overwhelming waves of the world, leasing my little lifeforce to find a forgotten lore which waits only to wash ashore.

In less lyrical and grandiose language, I grew up amidst the occult and daily miracles by my psychic mum who was a spiritualist and natural healer. With adulthood, I was drawn to paganism, practised witchcraft, honoured the Goddess and the re-emergence of female divinity in the collective.

A witch of the common-and-garden variety, not glamourous, I don’t perform well in pageants and spiritual theatre, but live simply and, as witches have always done, away from crowds and cities. I find it’s when sitting quietly in nature that something else comes through.

What is something fun and quirky about yourself?

Some parents name their children after famous people who they admire and aspire to. My parents named me after their spaniel ‘Sally’. It could have been worse – they had another dog called ‘Chunky’…

Where can people find you?

My website (with links to my Facebook and email) is https://sallywalkerauthor.com/. Includes articles and blogs.

What tips do you have for folk beginning their spiritual journey?

Prepare for a long journey, with twists and turns into strange wild places and back again. Look out for signposts with your name on them, half hidden in the grass. Practice discernment but please let’s stay open to glorious impossibility. Have fun amidst the crazy and bizarre. I’ve been trudging along the spiritual path all my life; not sure I’ve got very far yet…

Which deity or deities would you love to have dinner with?

Can’t help it, am attracted to the dark.

Guest of honour: Hecate – the dark night Queen of the witches. Also, as the Goddess of magic, probably worth keeping in with. Dinner conversation would cover and pass through forbidden thresholds, hidden knowledge and inside info about the Underworld. After dinner, am hoping she’ll loan us her Keys to those mysterious liminal places.

Then the party can begin.

What magical items would you take with you if you had to live on an island for a year?

My crystal collection which was passed down to me. (Generally the Earth’s beauty fluctuates fleetingly, ever changing within the turning year, but here it is encapsulated in Time, born long eons before our species’ brief millisecond appearance. Much treasured). My grandmother’s reindeer locket which has been my talisman.

A real magic wand would come in handy too…

Sally Walker lives on the most westerly windswept tip of England – a wild ancient land of moor and shore, where magic still lingers.

A Westerly Wind brings Witches is her debut novel, having been tied down with all the muggle business of life – working over the long years as a schoolteacher, nurse, family support at a Women’s Refuge, playbus worker with traveller and gypsy children (that one was fun!) amongst such other jobs which keep us sensibly on the ground.

But she writes from a secret life of her own experiences as a Cornish witch – in one of the many covens of a thriving local pagan community, unseen by the summer holiday makers, lurking in shadows cast by a full moon!

Writing about the cycles of history, telling and retelling our stories over and over, delving into a time when women lost their role in folk religion, hung or burnt all across Europe and America in their thousands, this novel honours The Burning Times lest we ever forget. Digging up old roots, the author is passionate to unearth the lost voices of those who have been silenced and have almost disappeared into a smothered herstory. Peering past the acceptable tales of our time, pulling the threads together to weave our way into another story altogether.

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/sally-walker