When did you first decide to write a book?
Davison: I didn’t consciously decide to write a book. It wasn’t something set out to do. It just came to me "out of the blue" and gradually unfolded in my imagination, over a few days, back in the late 1980’s, when my husband and I were living in Mousehole.

Are there any plans for further books?
Davison: I don’t have any plans for further books at the moment. This book may well be a "one-off" but who knows, perhaps in time, something may inspire me once more.

Cornwall is clearly quite close to your heart, was it always your plan to write a book so evidently devoted to your natural surroundings?
Davison: Yes, Cornwall is very dear to my heart – but no, there never was any plan to write anything at all. It was something that just happened of its own accord, and the book seemed to write itself in many ways. Having said that, however, maybe it was a natural and inevitable outcome of my love and appreciation of the beautiful Mount’s Bay area.

Where did the inspiration of the story come from?
Davison: My inspiration came initially from the view that we had from our cottage in Mousehole. We had a small front garden whose boundary was part of the sea wall, overlooking Mount’s Bay. So it was always a pleasure to sit on our old rustic bench with such a wonderful panoramic view. In the distance was St. Michael’s Mount, and directly in front of our row of cottages along the "Saltponds" lay a tiny island, known as St. Clement’s Isle.

At sunrise, this little island was thrown into silhouette, and it was then that it seemed, in my imagination, to look like a half-submerged monster in the water. I wondered how the island had come by its name and discovered that a hermit called Clement had supposedly once lived on it.

On one particular sunny afternoon, whilst sitting quietly in the garden, a tiny kingfisher suddenly flew in front of me and then alighted for a moment on the sea wall just an arm-length away from me. I have never been so close to such a dazzling little bird and was absolutely enchanted. Then it was gone – diving and swooping around St. Clement’s Isle. So through this series of personal situations and events, linked together with some of the intriguing ancient legends of St. Michael’s Mount and the Bay, my story was born.

You clearly have a love of storytelling, has this always been the case?
Davison: Yes, I’ve always been a "book-worm", lapping up stories from an early age myself; and then as a primary school teacher, certainly my favourite time of the school day was "Story time". Whether reading, or spontaneously re-telling a story to wide-eyed children, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to transport them into a completely different world.

Did you enjoy the experience of writing and publishing a book?
Davison: Yes, I very much enjoyed writing my book. It didn’t feel like hard work at all. I was excited by it as it just seemed to flow without effort, and take on a life of its own. Then when my husband came up with the illustrations for it, that really was the "icing on the cake".

The publishing experience has been quite different, encapsulating a wide variety of emotions – from dejection when one’s manuscript is rejected by various publishers, to elation when (just as you’ve given up hope) it finally gets accepted. And even then, when the actual process itself gets started, it seems to involve a range of situations and decisions, taking you from excitement to frustration, and back again!