BOOKS


Author Interview Melinda Salisbury


Melinda Salisbury takes readers to the Underworld in her latest YA novel, which is not to be missed


Charlotte Eyre @charlotteleyre 22 22nd April 2022


T


he route that Melinda Salisbury’s new YA novel took to publication is almost as twist as the plot of one of her fantasy tales. She first thought she


wanted to do a Medusa retelling, but that didn’t come to fruition because she couldn’t find a plot. When the author then decided to do a version of the Hades and Persephone myth, it was rejected by her former publisher, so she put the manuscript to one side in a cynical atempt—her words, not mine—to pre-empt the market by writing a middle-grade.


It was only when an editor at David Fickling Books (DFB), Anthony Hinton, questioned whether this middle-grade story was what she really wanted to write that a deal for Her Dark Wings was struck, and a route to market was ensured. And thank goodness Hinton spoke out when he did. Salisbury’s take on Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus who became queen of the Underworld, is astonishing: an intoxicating, sensual YA that combines Greek mythology with a modern-day love story.


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