The Beast Within

Transformation lies at the heart of every great story. Sometimes this takes the shape of a mentality shift or character development, but today’s stories examine transformation in its most literal meaning - the physical. We’re talking skin to fur and nail to claw -  humans who have been forced to succumb to the beast within.

Featuring

‘The Stag’ by Kate Wilmot (01.34), read by Olivia.  A reinvention of an ancient tale that was already bursting with gore, revenge and extreme emotion. This can be found in Flame Tree’s Moon Falling anthology. 

‘The Swan-Children of Lir’ by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (19.08) , read by Amanda Benzecry. An Old Irish Legend that is thought to be the inspiration for the ballet, Swan Lake, this story is brimming with jealousy, endurance and faith. Borrowed from Shadows on the Water. 

Biographies 

Kate Wilmot is a new writer based in the UK who likes to twist familiar themes with horror to tell something new. She is an archaeologist who turns to history and myths for inspiration, drawing on the remains and stories of people that have survived for millennia. Her work is highly influenced by her childhood in the eastern Mediterranean where the landscape and its past provided the perfect place for her passion for stories to grow.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a key figure in the US abolitionist movement. . He served heroically on the Union side in the Civil War before becoming a friend and mentor to the poet Emily Dickinson (1830–86). He himself wrote more prosaic works in history and memoir, but unleashed his imagination in Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic (1899).

Amanda Benzecry (voice actor) regularly narrates books for Audible, is on the panel for the RNIB and is a frequent contributor (both as a narrator and a writer) to TNF Soundings, providing audio material for the visually impaired.

This episode was hosted by Bea. 

‘The Stag’ is ©2024 Kate Wilmot and appeared in Moon Falling (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024).

‘The Swan-Children of Lir’ was originally published in Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic, Macmillan (1899), but more recently appeared in Shadows on the Water (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024).

#transformation #metamorphoses #swanlake #stag #moon

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.