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Join us with author Sally O'Reilly:
Hagtale
A Macbeth Origin Story
Sally O'Reilly
Shortlisted for the World of Books' Sustainable Story Award 2026.
A hagtale, a dark fable, a story told around winter's fires and known to Shakespeare but never written down. Until now.
In the eleventh century, a feral child is taken in by three witches after the wolves who cared for her are slaughtered by hunters. Raised in the forests amongst nature and magic, she is soon sent to live in a Scottish castle, where she falls under the spell of the cruel, ambitious Lord Macbeth.
Three hundred years later, gentle, observant Brother Rowan makes his way through the land on a strange and perilous quest. Travelling North to a remote and ancient monastery, Rowan is sent in search of an ancient library and the true history of Scotland's Kings.
Misfits in their own time, Wulva and Rowan are deeply connected despite the centuries that separate them. Each searching for answers, each in danger from discovering the truth.
Weaving together across the centuries, the stories of Rowan and of the child grown into a woman, lady, and queen will meet in thunder, lightning, and rain, at Cawdor Castle - at the throne of Macbeth.
Hagtale is a spine-tingling novel which breathes new life into Shakespeare's tragedy and the concept of literary retellings. Interrogating the play's magic and masculinity through a new focus on how stories are preserved and lost over time, this is historical literary fiction at its finest.
BroadcastsSally O'Reilly grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and now lives in Sheffield. En route, she's spent time in Brixton, Brighton and Barcelona. Her short stories have been published in the UK, Australia, and South Africa, and she has been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan short story prize and the Ian St. James Awards. Her historical novel Dark Aemilia (Myriad Editions/Picardor US) was nominated for the Kirkus Prize. She has worked as a senior creative writing lecturer at the Open University, and her journalism has been published in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and New Scientist.
