Poor Creatures: with Mairi Kidd

As the latest big screen adaptation of Frankenstein hits the cinemas and Netflix Mairi Kidd’s Poor Creatures explores the early years of Mary Shelley.

Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of fierce intelligence and grand passions, sent north to recover from a mysterious ailment. The Baxter family home, nestled in woodland by the river Tay, seems the perfect retreat. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, and Mary is no ordinary guest.

As the girls grow closer, their friendship becomes all-consuming, haunted by memory, fuelled by feverish creativity, and shadowed by something monstrous.

Inspired by true events, this is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became the author of Frankenstein. A story of girlhood, obsession, and the birth of a literary legend.

Mairi Kidd is the Director of the Saltire Society and a writer. She is a fluent Gaelic speaker and she has an MA in Celtic Studies from Edinburgh University. She was the Head of Literature at Creative Scotland and was formerly Managing Director of Barrington Stoke. Mairi is the author of We are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty and Fiery and Fierce, as well as a number of books for children, and drama for TV, radio and stage. She has a passion for exploring untold stories, and particularly women's lives in history. Mairi regularly appears on TV and radio discussing books. She lives in Portobello with her husband Tom, an illustrator, and their rescue cat.

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