East Anglian folklore inspires Sara's 'astonishing' debut novel

Debut novelist Sara Bayat is the author of the 'astonishing' Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting

Sara Bayat’s debut novel, Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting, is released tomorrow. Here, the former UEA student explains how East Anglian folklore has inspired the book

Who are you and what do you do?
Hello! My name is Sara Bayat, and I’m a writer based in Norwich. My debut, Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting, is about a rural village with a dark history, and when the old woodland is earmarked for development, the community must confront their own demons as strange things begin to happen. It’s about the things that haunt us – the people and places we can’t let go of, the past that refuses to settle, the mistakes that continue to trouble, and of course, the odd unexplained phenomena. The book was very inspired by folklore and eerie tales – of which East Anglia has many!

What brought you to Norfolk in the first place and what is it about the county that made you want to stay?
I moved to Norwich in 2017 after being awarded a full bursary to attend the Prose Fiction MA at UEA. I stayed for a few reasons. I met my now-husband about a month after arriving, and the following year, I remained at UEA to pursue my Creative and Critical Writing PhD. Norwich is one of the oldest cities in the UK, so it’s full of interesting history and stories, an abundance of medieval churches, and pockets of beautiful old buildings. There’s a really great community of creatives here, and there’s always something brilliant going on, whether it’s an event at the National Centre for Writing, Norwich’s various film and literary festivals, or an evening spent delving into old local traditions, rituals and legends with the Norfolk Folklore Society (as seen on Charlie Cooper’s fantastic series, Myth Country). The wider county is full of market towns and villages to explore (a favourite pastime of mine), and there’s plenty of rural and coastal landscapes to ramble around (another favourite). I love learning about and being in nature, and I want to be in the countryside as much as possible, so Norfolk is an ideal location for that.

How would you describe your time at UEA?
I have such nostalgia for my MA year! I met so many wonderful people, many of whom are still friends, and it was a really joyful time. I feel quite lucky because our cohort got on really well as a whole, and we remain very encouraging and supportive of each other’s writing. The PhD was a more solitary experience, purely because it demands intensive individual study, but I was surprised to discover how much I actually enjoyed both the research process and critical writing, which is an art in itself because it requires transforming often quite dense analytical theory into a clear and accessible argument; it took some trial and error! My supervisors – Naomi Wood and Nonia Williams – were both incredible women who are experts in their field, and they continued that sense of encouragement and support I’d experienced on the MA. During my time as a postgraduate researcher, I had the opportunity to work as an associate tutor teaching undergraduate students, which I absolutely loved; now that I have my doctorate, I hope to teach creative writing in the future.

What have you had published up to now?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have stories published in literary magazines and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, but they were a few years ago now, before I started writing Hesket.

When did you first have the idea for Hesket and how long has it taken to develop?
I wrote it over a few years, and was originally inspired by the River Wensum, which flows through the city of Norwich. I lived for a short while in a flat that overlooked the river, a stone’s throw from a beautiful medieval bridge (the oldest in Norwich, circa 1340) that sits across the road from a pub. The pub was built in the 17th century atop an old execution site – so the story goes – where religious heretics and alleged witches lost their lives, and where crowds gathered along the bridge to watch the accused walk to their deaths. I used to look out at the river and wonder at all the history that a river as old this one survives, flowing as it does across centuries, and also at the river itself, this whole other world going on below the surface, unseen and unknown by so many of us, imagining what might be lurking in its slow, murky depths. It was then that the Hesket Hag swam into being, followed in succession by the characters who populate the part of the Wensum where it winds wide and slow around a little Norfolk village…

How have you found the process of writing your debut novel?
A challenge! I was writing it as part of my PhD thesis, which put a lot more pressure on it than there would be otherwise. And because I was writing it alongside a critical essay, it took twice as long to complete, but we got there in the end.

It has been described as ‘astonishing’ – how does that feel?
I’m delightfully astonished that someone thinks so!

What is it about the East Anglian countryside that has inspired you?
Is ‘everything’ an acceptable answer? If I had to distil it, then probably the silence and solitude of its landscapes. Norfolk is a patchwork of woodland, heath, field, marshland and fen, all stitched together by rivers and hedgerows. Very often I’ve stood at the edge of one of these and had views for miles; usually there is some distant medieval church tower (or three), and rarely do I see anyone else. Because the landscape is uninterrupted by mountains or even large hills, the sky is open and unending (and brilliant for star gazing), and makes you feel quite small beneath something so imposing and colossal. And of course, East Anglia was once a notorious wellspring of witch-hunters, and such a history might influence how you see a place, particularly on days of temperamental weather, when the landscape seems almost imbued with foreboding. All of this can lend itself to a sense of unease, of disquiet, and it was these qualities that inspired the setting in Hesket.

When is publication day and how can people find out more about your book?

Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting will be published on 5th March 2026. It’s available to pre-order now, and The Book Hive are very kindly hosting a launch on publication day.

What is next for you?
Lots more rambling around the Norfolk countryside and devouring East Anglian folklore, when I’m not writing my second book.