Samira Ahmed

This week’s columnist: Presenter Samira Ahmed

A book about King Arthur changed my life.

I wouldn’t be the first teenager to have adored the fantasy escapism of such myths. My favourite TV show in 1984 was Robin of Sherwood, starring Michael Praed as its pagan-tinged hero. And at the cinema I’d looked in awe at the posters for John Boorman’s epic film Excalibur with a black-clad Helen

Mirren portraying Morgan Le Fay as an evil, seductive sorceress.

But then at 16 I read The Mists of Avalon by the American fantasy writer Marion Zimmer Bradley and it changed how I saw the world right from the cover. On the front was an elegant image of Morgan Le Fay in her black robes and mounted on a white horse, carrying Excalibur – not a witch, but a priestess.

It turned the King Arthur story on its head, first by telling it from the point of view of the female characters. But also by making Morgan Le Fay not the villain, but the doomed heroine, trying to protect ancient British culture from post-Roman leaders imposing the Christian religion and exterminating her people. The book was also my introduction to issues women still grapple with today: Igraine, Arthur’s mother, is a teenage bride in a forced marriage to an older man; Guinevere has to confront the sadness of infertility and is trapped in a loveless marriage.

There were exciting depictions of ancient rites, like the May Day celebration of Beltane. Bradley had done careful research, and spent time with druids and modern pagans in Glastonbury.

Ever since, I’ve been fascinated by the mysteries of ancient sites across Britain, from Tintagel in Cornwall to the Arbor Low stone circle in Derbyshire.

The Mists of Avalon taught me to take pride in women’s experiences, to see the value of fighting for your beliefs, even if you lose, and to remember there are always different ways of seeing the same story. Rereading it since Brexit has made me think anew about what Britishness means. It’s still magic.

‘There are always different ways of seeing the same story’

✢ Samira presents Front Row on BBC Radio 4 and the podcast How I Found My Voice.