Traitors star and million-copy-selling author Harriet Tyce completed a book signing in Meadowhall for her fifth novel, Witch Trial.

Ms Tyce, 53, opens her novel with a graphic scene that she says she would ‘struggle’ to see on screen.

She said: “I do all my writing in bed, which isn’t very good ergonomically, but I think it’s because it feels like a safe space it doesn’t freak me out as much.”

Despite her fear of seeing her creation come to life, she said: “I’d love a TV adaptation if it was done well, but I might find it quite frightening to watch some of the scenes.”

The author was a contestant on series four of BBC show The Traitors.

“I am as I am,” she said. “And it’s a pressured environment and it’s very hard to be anything other than the person you are.” She joked that she wished the producers had not shown the now infamous breakfast scene but added: “It was an amazing experience.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it fun, but extraordinary and fascinating.”

Witch Trial’s character Isobel honours Isobel Gowdie, who was prosecuted under witch trial legislation in the 1700s.

Ms Tyce said another factor in her characters’ creation was her MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction which she completed at the University of East Anglia. She believes she subconsciously took inspiration from witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins, who is reflected in her protagonist.

Her writing and bibliography pay homage to her main inspirations Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.

When asked if she was grateful for her time as a barrister, she said: “I’ve got a motto, which is that nothing is wasted, and that those years, and that experience is what’s led for me to have the author career that I have.

“I’m grateful for all of it.”

Discussing what is next in 2026, she said: “What I’m interested in possibly exploring is a follow up to Witch Trial, because there are some characters in it that I’d very much like to know what happens next for them.

“So, maybe revisiting the world 10 years later is what’s sort of in my head, but don’t hold me to that, because it might end up being something completely different.”