nick-arthur-daniel.jpeg)
Author Kate Sawyer talks to us about her debut novel The Stranding and gives us a sneak peek at her next project set in Suffolk.
Kate Sawyer was born in Bury St Edmunds and grew up in the countryside as the eldest of four siblings. After training in acting at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art Kate worked as an actor.
She is also a founding ensemble member of award winning theatre company The Faction and established her own theatre company, The Curious Room. Kate's first novel The Stranding was published by Coronet in 2021 and was listed for the Costa First Novel Award.
Kate will be speaking to our own Lisa Brennan at the Lavenham Literary Festival on Saturday 19 November at Lavenham Village Hall, sponsored by Mattioli Woods Wealth Management. Tickets are available from the What's On West Suffolk website.
I remember holding Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables in high esteem when I was younger; I loved watching the TV show with my Mum and my siblings on a Saturday night and when I was a bit older, reading the books too. I've yet to watch the new series on Netflix, but I hope in a couple of years I'll be able to watch it with my daughter before enjoying the books.
As I grew-up many of my heroes were from television, rather than books. I was a teenager in the latter part of the nineties so slap-bang in the middle of Brit-Pop and Ladette culture and I was quite influenced by all of that; though I loved the Spice Girls and Blur equally.
I've always written. I enjoyed creative writing at school and have kept a journal since I was about fourteen but it was really through my acting that I began to write in earnest. I trained as an actor and worked professionally (alongside waitressing, shopkeeping, yoga teaching, events management...) for twenty years. During that time I started to write short plays and film scripts that I planned to perform in. It was actually a short play that was the starting point for The Stranding. I wrote a ten minute play about a family living on a beach inside the bones of a whale and I kept thinking about it; eventually I sat down to write their story from the beginning.
Being published is a very surreal experience. It didn't help having my first novel published during a pandemic when there were no face-to-face meetings with my editor or publicist, no launch party, bookshops and libraries weren't running at full capacity and there were no book festivals; one of many reasons that I'm delighted to be appearing at Lavenham Literary Festival. But yes, being published does change your life - in both good and less good ways. Writing is a very solitary experience and it felt very strange that my little creative project was suddenly a commercial product and one of my private passions, my career.
It is a very odd experience, so much so that I've made a podcast about it! I started my podcast Novel Experience (available on all podcast platforms) at the beginning of this year and I'm really enjoying making it. I chat to authors, all at different stages in their careers, about the experiences that led them to, through and beyond publication. Hopefully it will be interesting and helpful to both readers and writers as it is a bit of a peek behind the curtain at how books come to be, but also a reassuring reminder that there is no formula, no such thing as normal when it comes to making art and putting it out into the world!
Many people find it surprising, but I did write the two timelines in tandem, flipping from one to the other, almost exactly as it now appears in the finished novel. I've discovered that having a relatively organic process is best for me, I need to be surprised by the work and even if I plan, I tend to discard it! Ruth's character, in fact all of the characters developed in this way. There is more development in the editing process, where I try to interrogate every sentence and check that I am including the right details to help build a clear picture of who these people might be.
It was wonderful and strange and an honour and something I will remember for my entire life. It all came at a bit of a fraught time personally, my mum wasn't well and so I was helping her with her caring responsibilities whilst caring for my daughter who was just a year old at the time. Also, the events surrounding the prize were mostly online due to the advent of Omicron, so I felt a bit detached from the reality of it.
The evening that the shortlist was announced on Radio 4's Front Row was particularly surreal. I'd made a meal for my family and we all had a glass of fizz to toast the announcement. Just before they got to revealing the shortlist for the First Novel Award my daughter informed me that she'd "done a poo" and my nana started to feel dizzy. So I found myself changing a one year old's nappy and giving advice on breathing exercises to a centenarian whilst my novel was being discussed on national radio.
I rather like that my first moment of literary success was the least starry moment imaginable. That said - just in case anyone influential is reading this - I certainly I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to attend a glitzy literary party!
My second novel This Family is due to be published in hardback on 11th May 2023. It is the story of family set over the course of one day in a Suffolk garden and punctuated by memories of the last forty years. It is about joy and grief and love and forgiveness; the things that change over time and what, despite everything, remains the same. I am so excited to share it with readers.
I am also working on the TV adaptation of The Stranding which I am co-writing with Afua Hirsch. There is still a long way to go before it makes it to screens but, fingers crossed, it is on the way. Between that and getting started on my third novel, I'm being kept pretty busy anyway!
As you might guess of someone who has a podcast about the process of writing and the experiences behind publication, I love talking about writing and books! So, I should imagine there'll be plenty of that! But I'm pretty open to whichever questions come my way. Oh, and I'm planning to read the first couple of pages of my new novel This Family, which will actually be a world exclusive!
I have a lovely pile of books to read of books that are soon to be published and for guests that I am soon to interview on the podcast. But, during the two weeks I am hoping to take off at Christmas I am planning to read the new books by two of my favourite authors: Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson and The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell.
Being near my family, the countryside, the sunsets and, currently, the new season apples from Bury market. (I'm a Russet girl!)
I used to own a health-food shop and I wrote a cookbook of all of our recipes when we had to close down due to a rent hike in 2015. I can still rustle up a rather tasty Aubergine Parmigiana.
