The Stroud woman whose short story inspired Hollywood film Wicker

Ursula Wills, a Stroud, Gloucestershire author, says she never expected her 14-page short story The Wicker Husband to become a raunchy A-list film. Wills wrote it in 2006 after a camping trip to Melinsey Mill, Cornwall, where wicker sculptures inspired the plot about an ostracised fisherwoman paying a basket-maker for a husband. The story was later “livened up” for the big screen by writers who expanded it into Wicker, starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård and Peter Dinklage. The UK premiere took place at the British Film Institute in London, and the film opens in cinemas on 30 October.