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Kate Forsyth's fascinating with myths and fairytales began when she was a small child.
Today she tells the weird myth of Eros and Psyche, a story at the root of fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty.
She first encountered this tale as a little girl, in an old book by C.S. Lewis. In the best-known version, 'Eros & Psyche', written by Lucius Apuleius in the 2nd century AD, Psyche is condemned to be married to a winged serpent but is rescued by Eros and taken to a secret palace where he visits her that night, making her 'his wife' even though she is afraid and unwilling. However, in the fairytale variants, usually told by women, the heroine's consent is integral to the breaking of the curse upon the beast-husband, and so that is one element I will be changing.
It was only later in life she became aware of the tragic love affair that inspired it.
Psyke is published by Penguin