Fiona Mozley on York: ‘The Mystery Plays influenced my writing more than any book’
The Booker prize-shortlisted author reveals why her hometown’s past is both a blessing and a curse
27 January 2018
My hometown is known for a few different periods of ascendency and cultural boom, and these eras loom large. Indeed, as anyone who has visited York will know, this “looming” is literal as well as metaphorical: York Minster is the largest gothic cathedral north of the Alps. In addition to its later medieval churches and treasures of stone and glass, York also has Roman remains, Viking artefacts, and a very active Richard III society. Whenever I tell someone I’m from York they will invariably mention the Jorvik Viking Centre, and fondly recall its moving “time travel” carts that take visitors through a reconstructed Viking-era street. As a teenager, the city’s fixation with its past could become wearisome.
