The Kexa, or hemlock cat, which appears later, is made up but draws upon some folk beliefs about both cats and hemlock. The Shuck, early in the book, is straight from East Anglian folklore.

Sometimes it will be an existing entity or artifact from folklore, sometimes I will adapt something, and sometimes I will make it up. I know what kind of emotion or tone I want to get in the story to eventually transfer to the reader, and that influences everything, including what creatures or magic I might need. Much of what I do is instinctive, based upon a lifetime of reading folklore, fairy stories, history, and fantasy. How did you choose which creatures and figures to use? Are some of the foes that Susan and Merlin face original, or are they all drawn from folklore? The rich folklore of the British Isles plays a large part in Booksellers. But I think if I imagine places I’d be fascinated to see, then that will also work for readers, and part of creating the reality of those places is to get the small details right, which will build up sufficient imaginative fuel for the reader’s mind to supply the rest. A large part of my writing is often about places I would like to exist and which I could visit or live in, like the Abhorsen’s House or the Clayr’s Glacier in the Old Kingdom books or the Star Fortress in Angel Mage or, indeed, the two bookshops in The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Was this just a sneaky way of handselling some of your favorites or does it serve a specific purpose in building out the bookseller’s world? How did you decide which books and other objects to feature in the book shops? In Booksellers, you refer to several classic authors for young people and adults. I take this as a feature, rather than a bug. Even my short stories, someone once commented, usually feel like they are part of bigger stories while being complete in themselves. As a corollary of that, I also invest intended standalones with enough interesting threads that can be pulled or joined to make new stories. I’m not sure that it does change all that much! I always try to tell a complete and satisfying story in a single book, even if it is planned as a part of a series. How does your work change when writing a single-volume tale?

Other than your Have Sword, Will Travel collaboration with Sean Williams, your recent works have been standalone stories.

The left handed booksellers