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Read about my journey into becoming a creative freelancer, interviews and reviews with great authors, and advice on writing and creative living.

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Dec 31, 2020
5 min

Your Most Popular Posts of 2020

I’m not sure if a summary of 2020 is a good idea. Besides, Charlie Brooker’s show and Flo and Joan’s song sum it up far better than I could. So I thought I’d do something else. Rather than dredging up a whole load of things we’re all perhaps taking a break from (I am currently floating in a cloud of denial, wine and sausage rolls), I thought I’d share my most-read blogs of the year. Thanks to you lovely lot, there have been an awful lot of views of my posts this year. Maybe y

Dec 12, 2020
7 min

Flash Fiction and Motherhood with Laura Besley

The Almost Mothers by Laura Besley made me cry. Several times. In pitch-perfect vignettes she explores everything from early motherhood to self-doubt to infertility. Her light touch and poignant stories meant I have already read it twice and would quite happily sit down and read it again. Intrigued by how you fit such powerful emotion into very short stories, I talked to Laura about her writing process and how she arrived at this beautiful collection. It’s quite astonishing h

Nov 29, 2020
6 min

Siblings, Structure and Pandas with Gail Aldwin

I recently enjoyed ‘The String Games‘ by Gail Aldwin. Personally, I think it’s better to go into a book ‘blind,’ so I had no expectations. Right from the off I was drawn into this story of complex family relationships and tragedy. It’s all done with a very light touch, and I was taken back to childhood times with her sensitive framing of the narrative through the eyes of a young girl who grows throughout the book. Wanting to know more about how it was put together, I spoke to

Nov 14, 2020
8 min

High Society, Glamour and Poverty Collide In Jane Davis’ Novel ‘At The Stroke of Nine O&

Hailed by The Bookseller as ‘One to Watch’, Jane Davis is the author of nine thought-provoking novels. In her most recent novel we encounter an actress, a duchess and a hostess, all brought together by a defining moment in British history: the last woman to receive the death penalty. Her novel At The Stroke of Nine O’Clock revolves around a gentleman’s club in high society London where the lives of three very different women become intertwined. It’s pacy, thought-provoking an

Nov 11, 2020
4 min

The Power of Perspective

I just watched Nikita Gill perform some of her work, Maidens, Myths and Monsters and her novel in prose The Girl and the Goddess at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The piece she performed (beautifully) was about Hera, the jealous and fiery-tempered goddess who cursed many and caused suffering to countless gods and mortals. Yet we see her at the start of her life. Consumed by her own father, raped by her own brother. Gill’s words are lyrical, lamenting the fear and distrus

Aug 18, 2017
3 min

When Writing Seems Impossible

One of my favourite reactions to the question ‘why do you write’ came from Lisa McInerney when I saw her at the Emerald Street Literary Festival last year. She’d just won the Bailey’s Prize for fiction (you can see my thoughts on the book here), so she had reasons to be cheerful. Her answer was something along the lines of ‘I hate myself less when I’m writing than when I’m not.’ Having heard many replies from writers that made it sound like they leapt out of bed each morning,

Jun 16, 2017
4 min

The Glorious Heresies – Book Review

The Bailey’s Prize this year was recently won by the brilliant Naomi Alderman, with her book The Power (you can read my thoughts on that wonderful novel here). So I thought it was about time I caught up on last year’s winner, The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney. Everything about this book demands attention. The gaudy orange cover, the graffiti-style placing of the title and review quotes, everything is geared up to present you with a book that grabs you by the throat and

Apr 30, 2017
4 min

Power – Gender and Naomi Alderman’s Novel

In terms of power and control, it’s a scary time. Unity and strength seem to be giving way to individual gripes and complaints, people turned against each other to shout blame for the lives they’re not happy with. Unstable times lead to unlikely heroes. People currently in power are those that we wouldn’t have dreamed of electing or giving a voice to. Suddenly, a victory for a abusive right-wing president seems the ‘popular’ choice. Keeping the current UK government, the cham

Nov 5, 2016
3 min

When Revenge Goes Bad…

Frank Herbert offers us an insight into the darker side of human nature in The White Plague, an apocalyptic tale of revenge. The cover of the book is very apt – murky fog, a solitary figure, a town shrouded in obscurity. Even if the weather is fine, or we are indoors, this novel revels in the unknown. The words not said, agendas not revealed, or the problems or changes that might be lurking just around the corner. The message is clear: no-one is to be trusted. In Ireland, a m

Sep 30, 2016
4 min

We Are All Disordered

This month I started teaching AS Media Studies. What a treat. I’d forgotten the delights of delving into the signs and representations that we are bombarded with in daily life, and unpicking the institutions behind them, the messages they send us, and why. Of course, it can lead to a few rude awakenings. Poring over Lynx’s ‘ironic’ adverts depicting a scantily clad woman pulling a turkey out of the oven, it was clear that some of my students were already hyper-aware of the sk

Sep 7, 2016
5 min

We Need to Keep Talking About Kevin

In the book I’ve just finished reading, several rather unpleasant things happen. Arguably the first most significant even is when, about 200 pages in, a mother throws her six-year-old son across the nursery so hard he breaks his arm. Upsetting, yes, but not for the reasons you might think. Because as the arc of the small child was described in detail, I felt joyous. Fantastic, I thought, that little sod is finally getting his just desserts. Serves him right. My emotional reac

Aug 31, 2016
2 min

Squirrelling About – The Portable Veblen

It’s not often I finish a book in which the plot is almost entirely about a relationship, and I feel that it has been time well spent. Perhaps because of the squirrels, or the light-hearted take on the evils of big pharmaceutical companies, but whatever it is, The Portable Veblen has it. I really don’t like the word ‘quirky.’ While it technically is just a way of describing something a little bit different, I always associate it with despicable practices like wearing a small

Aug 23, 2016
5 min

The Unbearable Inconsistency of Levin

While I’m not the first, and I very much doubt I will be the last, I thought I’d share some ideas that were roused in me after reading Anna Karenin (even that sentence shows I’ve been reading Tolstoy). Seeing as it is such a well-read tome, I won’t go into the overall plot too much. Needless to say, at 900 pages, it is a little hard to summarise anyway. If you haven’t read it yet, or seen the film, there are a few spoilers here. You’ve been warned! It goes without saying that

Jun 29, 2016
4 min

The Versions of Us

A very interesting concept – three possible outcomes for the same couple. We’ve all questioned the ‘what ifs’ in our lives, so this novel has a go at unpicking the actual outcomes of decisions made over the span of an entire lifetime. What keeps you flicking the pages in this book (and I did read it very quickly) is the short chapters and the unusual concept. I would have liked for it to be executed with a little more finesse. Eva and Jim meet at a chance encounter while at U

Jun 10, 2016
4 min

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing

Personally, I’m not a fan of the word ‘genius.’ It’s derived from ‘genie.’ The idea that a little imp comes and sits on your shoulder and gives you an idea, and that’s where your fantastic work comes from. To me, that detracts from the graft, the inspiration, the dedication, needed in order to produce something of wonder and beauty. As Adam Grant points out in his TED talk, one of the reason people end up with beautiful creative things is that they create lots of average or c

May 13, 2016
4 min

The Dark Rooms Writers Have to Enter

Yes I’m a little late, but I have just devoured Emma Donoghue’s wonderful book, Room. Not since Christmas have I found a book that made me pause at every moment I could on my journeys around London, and even had me walking down the street reading in order to just get a few pages in before work. One of the most beautiful things is the voice. A child narrator can sometimes be a little trite and affected, but Donoghue’s use of subtle syntax, vocabulary and slightly skewed perspe

Feb 15, 2016
4 min

It’s All About Perspective

One of the most powerful things in the world to experience is someone else’s perspective. It’s also one of the most frustrating. As anyone who’s encountered a view or opinion that they find utterly objectionable on social media, the TV, overheard in a bus (a broadcast of anything Donald Trump has ever said) the initial reaction is that they are wrong. Utterly, idiotically wrong. The interesting thing is, no-one thinks they’re ill-informed. No-one thinks they’re simply regurgi

Jan 18, 2016
10 min

100 Books of Me Part III

This is an interesting bunch. At a time when I was searching to find my own ‘voice’ in my writing, I turned to as many varied authors and narrative perspectives as I could. From DeLillo to Atwood, from a story that explored the entire basis of christianity (The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ) to childhood incest (The Cement Garden), I was on the hunt for as much exposure as possible. Even when I turned to ‘classics,’ or at least books that I felt I really should hav

Jan 6, 2016
4 min

The Self-Conscious Writer (Review of The Blind Assassin)

Ah, I love the holidays. I’ve been putting off reading The Blind Assassin for ages, simply because I despaired at how long it would take me to read, never mind the extra weight it would add to my bag. A combination of relaxing holiday time, a six-hour train journey to France and a bad back (I’m getting old) all conspired in me finishing the 600-page tome in less than a week. A merry Christmas indeed. How I love Atwood. Her combination of engaging characters, subtle plotting a

Oct 10, 2015
7 min

100 Books of Me Part II

This second set of books started about a year ago. Now into my course, the shift is obvious. Almost exclusively first novels, my notes are geared towards what I can get out of it from a writing perspective, rather than as a reader. Which is the great thing about books. Maybe your interest is psychology, or politics, or sociology, or human nature, or relationships. Whatever you want to learn more about, you can find it in a novel. All of human nature is encompassed between tho

Sarah Scribbles

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