Sarah Pinborough

Sarah Pinborough is a bestselling author who has written in several genres. Her recent books include Behind Her Eyes, Cross Her Heart and 13 Minutes. Sarah's latest book is Dead to Her which is published in August 2020 and is available from Suffolk Libraries.

Who were your literary heroes as you were growing up and when did you first realise you wanted to write?

We lived in Syria until I was 8 (and then I went to boarding school), so without a lot of TV both my sister and I were early readers, very much influenced by my mum who is an avid reader. So as a kid I read a lot and widely - much more widely than I do as an adult I'm ashamed to say. I always loved creepy stories, from Treasure Island to Dracula, but very young I'd say Peter Pan was a favourite, and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

As I got older I would say that the writer who had the biggest influence was Stephen King. I mean I read loads of other authors like Wilbur Smith, Jean Plaidy, James Herbert, Guy Gavriel Kay and so many more, but King was King if you know what I mean! I would get his new book on Christmas day and that was Boxing day taken care of. Where writing is concerned, I started writing stories as soon as I could write I think. Certainly throughout school. It was always going to be acting or writing for me, and I'm too lazy for all the dieting and early mornings required for acting!

Suffolk readers of all ages will be familiar with your work in several genres. You have had great success writing thrillers now. As a writer are they satisfying to write and how does writing a thriller compare to your other writing?

Thrillers are fun to write even though they can be tricky. Everything in a thriller is dependent on structure, so you have to make sure the reveals and twists come at exactly the right points for maximum impact (well, you hope you get it right!). It can make the 'voice' of your novel difficult too, especially if you want an unreliable narrator, because the best unreliable narrators never lie, they just use a kind of sleight of hand to distract the reader from seeing the truth. That of course is what makes them fun to write!

In relation to my other stuff, in a lot of ways it's not that different, because whatever genre I'm working in I tend to like to include some kind of puzzle in the core plot. I tend to think in terms of story rather than genre. It's publishers that tie a writer to genres!

Your latest book is Dead to her, which is due to be published in August. Can you give us a flavour of what to expect?

Dead to Her is set in Savannah, Georgia, and is the story of two second wives, both of who have come from poor backgrounds and who have married rich older men. There's also of course, murder and a lot of secrets and a dash of voodoo. I wanted to write something that was quite fun and had a kind of feel of an 80s blockbuster but wrapped in a psychological thriller. It has shades of Rebecca and Tales of the Unexpected really.

Is there anything you can share about your next project?

I don't really want to say as yet because I'm in the early stages of writing it, but it is a psychological thriller about a career woman and mother (and all the guilt that goes with that!) with a stay at home husband who starts to think someone is out to get her. With a lot of added weird.

It must be amazing to have Stephen King following you on Twitter. How did that come about?

I'm not actually sure! But I remember the day I realised he was following me I was scared to ever tweet again in case he changed his mind and unfollowed me! I think it was after he'd read either The Death House or Behind Her Eyes. He's tweeted me quite a lot (mainly about my dog, Ted) and I met him at his son's wedding, but I'm still completely in awe. Teenage me would be very happy!

How has the enforced lockdown affected your writing routine?

I think the first couple of weeks I was like most people and just trying to get my head around it and watched a lot of TV and ate a lot of bad food while worrying about food deliveries, but then I slowly found my mojo and the past few weeks I've been working like a trojan. I've been writing the film adaptation of The Death House for an LA producer and have two TV projects in the UK and of course the new book. So I'm working 7 days a week, but there's not that much else to do!

What is on your 'to read' pile at the moment and can you recommend anything you have read recently?

My 'to read' pile is massive because I'm working so hard my brain is fried by bedtime and I seem to have lost my reading mojo. I have just read Lisa Hall's The Perfect Couple which is a really classy and satisfying thriller.And I'm looking forward to reading Hinton Hollow Death Trip by Will Carver who I think is a really original voice in crime fiction.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

I'm a massive fan of Tony Hancock of the old 50s/60s comedy Hancock's Half Hour and listen to them most nights before I go to sleep!