Jane Dougherty, author of 'Pasiphae' - Re-imagining Greek mythology, capturing a moment in poetry, and detaching from technology
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
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Summary
Jane Doughtery writes magical, often apocalyptic fiction. She's been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and is inspired by myth, history and classical tradition. Also, she's a poet, seeking to capture the moment in a spark of creativity.
Her new novel is 'Pasiphae'. It's a re-imagining of the Greek minotaur myth, a bid to reclaim one of its most maligned women. From the perspective of his mother, it's inspired by how women's roles are distored in Irish and Greek mythology. Jane is putting that right.
We talk about why she's detached from technology, also about the intention of poetry and what living in the country means for her idea.
You can hear why she just wants to live in the world of her novels, what she needs to know to start, and how she wrestles with the fear of rejection.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week's episode of Writers Routine is sponsored by the Quick Book Reviews podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | If this show takes you behind the scenes of writing books, the Quick Book Reviews podcast takes you into what makes them brilliant. |
| 0:13.0 | It's all about the authors too. You can join Philippa, who for the last six years has been chatting to some of the biggest authors around and discovering |
| 0:22.0 | their newest work. If you're a reader looking for new book recommendations and getting to know |
| 0:27.1 | your favourite writers, this is the perfect show for you with in-depth chats and spoiler-free book |
| 0:33.3 | reviews in perfect bite-sized chunks to fit easily into your day. |
| 0:38.6 | Philippa gets into all the fun questions too, finding out what authors like to eat, where they |
| 0:43.8 | want to go on holiday, and the gossip about bits of their life that you won't find anywhere |
| 0:49.4 | else. |
| 0:50.7 | All that with some very speedy book reviews, getting right to the heart of all the newest stuff out there and the best ones for you to read |
| 1:01.4 | the quick book reviews podcast is a lighthearted look at authors and what you might love about their new book |
| 1:07.8 | you can get two episodes a week, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:11.8 | Just search for the Quick Book Reviews podcast. |
| 1:23.7 | Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of Writers routine. This week we're with Jane Dockertie, |
| 1:30.4 | whose new novel Pacifié is a reimagining of the famous ancient Minotaur myth. We talk about why |
| 1:38.1 | in 2026 she simply wants to be in the world of her story. Also, why living in the country has hugely impacted |
| 1:47.2 | the ideas she has. I like to write in a visual way, in a sensorial way, and it's something |
| 1:56.6 | that, things that never really occur to me living in cities, and the things like how things smell and what the wind sounds like |
| 2:07.0 | and the different trees that make different sounds when the wind goes through |
| 2:11.4 | different types of leaf, the times of year that different flowers come out. |
| 2:16.5 | And I like to absorb all that and it's not a question of noting it down. |
| 2:21.2 | You just sort of, it just becomes part of things that you know. And Jane writes a lot of poetry. We run through what influences that short spark of creativity. Where does that feeling to write a poem come from? |
... |
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