We chat with author Laura Shepperson about The Heir of Venus, which is a feminist retelling of Greek and Roman mythology and reimagines the story of Aeneas and the women once left at the fringes of his story.
Hi, Laura! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! My name is Laura Shepperson and I’m the author of Phaedra and The Heir of Venus. I live in the UK, just outside London with my husband and two children.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I can’t remember ever not loving writing and stories! One of my earliest memories is of a ‘story’ I’d written about a cat sitting on a mat.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Hard one! Probably The Famous Five or The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.
- The one that made you want to become an author: I always wanted to write mystery stories like Nancy Drew.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It does so much in so little space.
Your latest novel, The Heir of Venus, is out August 6th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Hero through his wives’ eyes.
What can readers expect?
I like to explore the stories behind the stories, so this is the story of Aeneas, Trojan hero, told by the women in his life who typically weren’t given much space to tell their truth.
Where did the inspiration for The Heir of Venus come from?
I studied The Aeneid at school. When I was researching ideas for my second novel, I came across a different version of the myth about Dido’s sister Anna, who was washed ashore at Aeneas’s camp.I was intrigued to think about how the conversations between Anna, sister of the woman Aeneas abandoned, and Lavinia, the young Latin girl he was betrothed to to form a political alliance, might have gone.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I have a soft spot for Creusa, Aeneas’s first wife. I also really enjoyed exploring the fall of Troy from the Trojan perspective.
Can you tell us a bit about the research you did for The Heir of Venus?
I focused on the epic sources, both Greek and Roman. I read and reread the Iliad by Homer and the Aeneid by Virgil, as well as Fasti and Metamorphoses by Ovid. It’s important to remember though that none of those are contemporary sources; Homer, Virgil and Ovid are all writing their own retellings of the myths that have been passed down to them.
What’s next for you?
I’m taking a break and exploring some new ideas. Watch this space!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
So far this year I’ve really enjoyed Medusa by Nataly Gruender, coming out in August, and Claire North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy which came to a close recently with The Last Song of Penelope. I can’t wait to read the culmination of Pat Barker’s Trojan War trilogy which began with The Silence of the Girls, The Way Home, coming out in August.
