Sophie Masson talks to Bridget Carrington about the influences that underpin her novels.

Many of your books are based on re-workings of traditional tales and myths from Europe. How did your fascination with these tales arise?

As a child I immersed myself in reading children’s classics and folklore. This was often to escape from my noisy, excitable and demonstrative siblings! My father was a great story teller, and I also heard these stories many times from him.

Your family background is not British yet your influences seem to be quite extensively from English literature…

The English children’s literature tradition really appealed to me. It is light-hearted yet melancholy and simple. It gives free reign to the reader’s imagination, and that was just what I needed. My early loves were Leon Garfield, C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll – all offered worlds into which I could enter through reading the books.

You also base many of your stories on fairy tales, and mix in religion. Why is this?

They are all part of the wider ‘unknown’. The things which we see out of the corner of our eye could be faerie, angel or something in between. Similarly the stars were a great source of wonder to me as a child, but never a source of fear.

 Your Thomas Trew stories for younger readers have just started publication in the UK. What was the inspiration for this series?

It all started with a dream, in which I saw the café in Thomas Trew and the Hidden People. There was a long corridor with a door at the end with ‘Apple Tree’ on it. I was attracted by the idea of Thomas the Rhymer, who moved in and out of the faerie world without harm, and who was helped by those inhabiting that world. It’s not unlike the story of Tam Lin, but less frightening. I always envisaged it as a series of books, and there are several titles still to be published here.

Are you particularly interested in ‘mixed’ characters like Thomas?

 Yes, they have a fascination for me.

Could this be because of your own eclectic ancestry?

Yes – I never really feel any country is ‘home’, but I also feel that the ability to move between worlds appeals to children. They are safe in their own world, but seek an imaginative ‘other world’. I particularly enjoy bringing out the imagination and sense of wonder in a ‘hard’ sophisticated teenage audience.

Several of your books have connections with drama or history, or both…

I am a great admirer of Shakespeare’s skill in characterization, and his mix of reality and fantasy, all expressed in wonderful language. There are no preconceptions, and in plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream the fantastical element and the passion are totally welded together. I also had a wonderful teacher. I think of Shakespeare as being like a quiet child with a great imagination. I also think that children should not be talked down to. There is no place for a patronizing attitude, and children’s literature should not be compromised.

Why did you choose an American setting for Malvolio’s Revenge?

I was totally enthralled by the atmosphere when I visited Louisiana. New Orleans is an amazing place and has a fascinating history. Before the Jim Crow Laws, Creoles were part of high society, were often very wealthy and had slaves themselves. The Jim Crow Laws reduced them to the status of blacks, and they lost everything.

You have many books published in Australia, and are also translated into German, yet there are no French translations. Why?

I don’t know! French children’s literature is quite different from English, and doesn’t have the same imaginative elements. I hope that Hachette may now take up some of my work though…

What are you working on now?

 I have a graphic novel called Secret Army; the plot concerns the use of psychic powers to outwit the Nazis. I am a great fan of Agatha Christie and I am also working on a murder mystery novel set in seventeenth century Venice, called Madman of Venice.