Queen of the May
Queen of the May is a faerie story, insofar as it’s a story with faeries in it, but by the same token it’s also science fiction.
Suw started writing it in September 2011, as she was packing up her flat in Arsenal to move to Woking whilst her husband worked in Tunisia. Alone amongst a sea of boxes and fed up of the disruption, she took some time off to visit nearby Gillespie Park before she left north London forever. Inspired by the park’s strange mix of the quotidian and ethereal, Suw started writing the novella both as an escape from the tedium of packing and as an answer to the question, who is the May Queen? And why does she bustle in my hedgerow?
Every year, on May Day, a young woman is stolen away by the faeries to become their Queen for a year. This year, a young botanist called Shakti finds herself tricked into becoming faerie royalty. As she stands trapped in her new body, she can do nothing but watch as the previous Queen, herself once just a normal human, takes on Shakti’s likeness and walks away with her life.
But the faeries have bitten off more than they can chew, because Shakti will do whatever it takes to get her own life back. As she struggles to work out how to get home, she uncovers Faerie’s dark secret and finds that she is not the only human who needs saving.
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