Embracing the Dark: Unveiling the Enigmatic World of Polly Hall

by Polly Hall

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not a morning person. I appreciate the promise that sunrise brings but I love the dark. I love dusk, and crepuscular is one of my favourite words.

Dimsy dark as we like to say in Somerset - when you can spot the faery folk, that liminal other-worldly transition from light to dark. The stillness that descends over the land as night falls is special and taps into my chthonic enquiry of the psyche.

I remember walking back home one night on a narrow country lane in the pitch black without a torch, trying to use my night vision and the ground undulations beneath my feet to guide me when I heard a noise behind the hedgerow. It sounded like breathing. I carried on walking, telling myself there was no one following me or I'd hear their footsteps. Again, the noise, a sharp nasal outbreath and the rustling of leaves. In the hedge were two glowing orbs.

Convinced I was about to meet a supernatural fate, I stopped and spoke to the sound. It was then I realised it was a cow rustling up against the hedge!

I grew up in the Somerset countryside (think no street lights and cow pats!) and I know the place well, so I guess that made it easier to set my debut gothic horror novel, The Taxidermist's Lover. Somerset is a rural county in South West England known for its wetlands and marshes, apples and cider-making and Glastonbury, said to be visited by Joseph of Arimathea with the legendary Holy Grail. It is a place rich in myth and folklore with ghost stories often manifesting from the misty moor, willow trees poking their spiky fingers in the air from rhynes separating the low-lying fields.

I didn't initially set out to become a horror writer, but it makes sense when I look back at my enquiry into the Jungian shadow that has fascinated me all my life. Fairy tales, the natural world, myth, and environment all represent, whether metaphorically or literally, a dark decay that offers rich compost for the soul. If you are looking for inspiration, go outside in the countryside at night!

Growing up on the Somerset moor infused me with a healthy appetite for fresh air and green fields with the abundant chaos and changing seasons on my doorstep. Lacking the vocabulary to express deeply spiritual experiences prompted me to journal my innermost thoughts from an early age, which I still do today. Nowadays the focus on positive mental health and the importance of 'time-out' in nature seems like old news to some of us. It's all there. You just have to open your eyes.

I followed a rather unusual career path. Graduating with a BA Hons in Business Admin & Marketing, working for radar defence, a greetings card company, a charity for the homeless in Bristol; then I retrained as a holistic therapist running a private practice for over 15 years. While treating many, many hundreds of people as a reflexologist I gleaned some knowledge about the human soul.

I always managed to incorporate writing into all these varied roles, but it wasn't until ​I decided to undertake an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa Uni that I began to feel more comfortable on my path as a writer. It was a great feeling to have my first novel read on a wider scale and complete strangers commenting on it. Up until that point my flash fiction, poetry and stories had been included in national and international anthologies, competitions and collaborative arts projects but when I saw my name in the New York Times that felt surreal!

My favourite place in nature is by the coast. Being near a large body of water allows me to put things into perspective, to know that change is constant and necessary. Tides, moon phases, the rise and fall of waves, the above and below - all of it refreshes and cleanses me inside-out, outside-in and it scares the hell out of me if I'm out of my depth in the water. This is a good thing. I was told by an astrologer that I have very little 'water' in my chart so it makes sense that I seek out water, and thankfully I grew up surrounded by water on the Somerset marshes.

I do a lot of thinking and brooding when I'm outside which allows me to balance out the time I spend inside on my computer. Some of my most spiritual moments have been in nature: simple things like watching a dragonfly flit across a pond, the majesty of an oak tree moving in the breeze, the crashing of waves against rock. Whatever is going on in my life I know if I breathe the sea air, sit under a tree, walk through a field, or watch the sun set, somehow, there is healing.

I have always supported Earth Pathways by enjoying the diary and calendar for many years before my own writing was featured on the beautiful pages of the Calendars in 2019 (December) and 2022 (November). My poetry tends to explore how nature can be linked to our own natural cycles through life.