What were the major influences on Outlaw – both inside and outside the Robin Hood legend?
TL: Everything. But, Murdach wasn’t named after the 1950s one, as well you know – Ralph Murdac was the actual Sheriff around the time [in the 1180s], so I thought I’d take a little from history, and a little from Henry Gilbert. Actually, Henry Gilbert’s Robin Hood was probably the first book on the outlaw that I ever read as a child, and so this was a major influence. And of course, as I said, Robin of Sherwood was another factor. When I started to research, J.C Holt’s Robin Hood was a constant companion and again, influenced the way I told the tale. But I pretty much devoured most Robin Hood genres as a child – so there’s likely to be a little bit of everything in there somewhere… AWW: One of the interesting twists on the legend was making Marian a widow instead of a “maid”. What inspired this change? TL: There’s always a need to ‘make things your own’ when you do this – to have something slightly different. Richard Carpenter added Nasir. Prince of Thieves made Robin and Will Scarle
