Lydia's little scare in gothic Kylemore adventures

First-time author Lydia Little has just launched the first of a new series of books based on the adventures of a schoolgirl in a gothic-style castle boarding school with a mysterious past set in enchanting countryside.

The adventures of Ms Harriet Potter this is not, however. Instead, it’s a story very much rooted in reality but with a ghostly twist; a sort-of Irish Mallory Towers set in 1980s Kylemore Abbey in Co Galway. Just like the heroine of the story, Alice Stone, Little was seduced by the prospect of going away to a boarding school and determined to convince her parents to send her there.

“There were two schools on offer in Kinsale where I grew up,” says Little, “and they just didn’t offer the sort of adventure that I was looking for at the time… and when I read Mallory Towers, I just thought ‘Gosh, wouldn’t boarding school be fantastic?’”