If you feel a little strange when you gaze up at the full moon …
If you sense some greater power when you stand on a hilltop
With the skies arching above you …
If you’re touched by the presence of something unseen
When walking in the woods …
Then ... enter the world of Stonewylde …

I lived in Dorset for nearly 27 years and love the place passionately. I always enjoyed walking in the hills and fields, through the woods and on the beach. It’s a magical place for me. The words I wrote at the top of this page are from the heart. That’s how parts of Dorset make me feel.

I became a pagan several years ago after a teaching colleague said, “It’s not that I don’t believe in God, or a god, but more that the only time I feel really at one with any divinity is when I’m out walking in the hills.” I realised that’s exactly how I felt too, and this led me to explore the pagan beliefs and adopt and adapt them for my own.

Kit Berry © Graphic Photo-Arts

I love the festivals and what they represent (to me the religion is symbolic and not literal). But the best time for me when I really feel the energy is at the full moon. I usually celebrate this, sometimes very simply with just a thought or a candle, and other times elaborately with a circle and symbols of the elements, using what some call “the power of intent” and others might call “casting a spell”. Paganism is about doing your own thing and not having to follow any rules or doctrine. It’s a religion to be enjoyed and explored and taps into the most powerful energy of all. It gives me a huge feeling of connection with the earth and all living things, and a sense of peace and harmony.

I brought up my three sons alone in a small house just outside Weymouth in Dorset. During this time I trained to be a teacher and had a wonderful career working with children and young people from ages 7 to 16. I studied for an MA in Education and really loved teaching. Maybe some of my ex-pupils reading this may remember what fun we had together. I whole-heartedly subscribe to the theory that educating a child is not about filling a bucket, but lighting a fire. I hope I lit many fires during my years of teaching. It certainly kept mine burning brightly.

Kit Berry © Stephen Perry

I’d always wanted to write novels, and can’t recall how many exercise books I bought as a child, computers not having yet been invented. I’d start grandly with Chapter 1, and then run out of steam by the second or third page. As an adult I found the same problem. I’d spend a long time trying to plan a novel, and then just get bored with the whole thing before I’d even started. But one day this all changed. I had a transformational encounter with a great golden hare in some woods. I felt different afterwards. Then a while later I had another very deep experience at sunrise on the morning of Samhain in a labyrinth made of fallen autumn leaves. I knew then with absolute certainty that I would write, and that what I wrote would be successful.

I’ve known of Stonewylde for many years. The place is magical and there’s nowhere else like it on earth. I wanted to share it with others, so I decided to set my story of Sylvie in Stonewylde. That way everyone could discover how life can be when people live in harmony with nature. They could enter the world themselves and experience the mysticism and beauty of a place where the goddess lives and breathes in every leaf, stone and fold of land. Stonewylde would then become a real world to them, somewhere they could visit themselves whenever they chose.

I started writing the books on November 9th, 2003. My boys thought I had lost my mind completely. I wrote in a white-hot heat and couldn’t stop. I was still teaching at the time but managed to write for several hours a day. It took me just four months to write the first draft of a massive book, which I had to eventually split into three separate books. I didn’t write down a plot line, but had a notebook where I’d jot down ideas and phrases and names for the characters. I planned the calendar carefully, working out where the full moons would fall in relation to the festivals. Readers will know just how much the books pivot on this natural framework. But other than this, I just wrote and it poured out of me like a torrent. I was permanently exhausted and jittery, but I couldn’t rest until the story was told. I'd waited all my life to do this and once I'd started, I couldn't stop. There will ultimately be five books in the Stonewylde Series and then that will be the end.

Kit Berry © Graphic Photo-Arts

After many years of being firmly and happily single, in 2005 I fell in love with a wonderful man. He’s as passionate about Stonewylde as I am and has helped me more than I can ever say. During this special year I also unofficially adopted a lovely daughter who's been a very welcome addition to my family. Today she and my boys have all grown up and are out in the world doing their own thing. I’ve moved away from Dorset and now live in Berkshire. It was a great wrench leaving the place I loved so much, and my teaching career and friends and family. But the time was right to move on and start a new phase of my life.

Kit Berry © Caroline Mardon
I married the man of my dreams in 2007 and we're now living in bliss, with regular visits from all our children. I’m involved in marketing and promoting the books, working on the next title, and answering e-mails all day and night. I send out a regular newsletter at each festival to Stonewlde fans, and also run the Stonewylde Forum which is a wonderful community of people who've read the books and can't bear to leave them behind. People's reactions to Stonewylde constantly amaze me. They seem to feel as passionate and wild about the place as I am, and I spend a lot of time interacting with my fans, giving talks and going to book signing events.

It’s a great life, being an author. It’s taken me a long time to get here and realise my childhood dream. But there’s nothing on earth I’d rather do – except perhaps be able to live at Stonewylde. With my new husband of course!

Contact Kit at kit.berry@stonewylde.com