Sarah Waters
Sarah Waters
Sarah Watersis a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith...
NationalityWelsh
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth21 July 1966
family grammar
My parents were the first in our family to go to grammar school. My grandparents were in service.
great love
I love film and, particularly, shorts. You don't get to see them often, and they're a great little form, like a short story.
stories
I'm interested in stories that aren't getting told: it's where my interests lie.
novelist
I knew I'd always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, 'Well, I'd rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one'.
dramas overlap plot relatively sort
I like dramas because there's a big overlap between film and fiction, so I feel relatively qualified to talk about plot and characterisation and that sort of thing.
lots toward waist
The early '20s were like the waist of an hourglass. Lots of things were hurtling toward it and squeezing through it and then hurtling out the other side.
allow books excuse love novels period time watching
I love research. Sometimes I think writing novels is just an excuse to allow myself this leisurely time of getting to know a period and reading its books and watching its films. I see it as a real treat.
war book character
I've just finished a series of Olivia Manning novels. She's best known for two trilogies: Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy. The six novels are continuous and contain the same set of characters. They are based on Manning's experiences in Eastern Europe and Egypt during the Second World War. Each novel is a wonderful picture of the peculiar British expatriate culture and what was happening during the war. She's one of those brilliant women who write very well about domestic relationships. All the books are slim, and it's easy to gallop through them.
writing mad trying
Read like mad. But try to do it analytically - which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work.
wall mind victorian
I wouldnt mind being a fly on the wall in a few Victorian parlours.
writing i-can can-do
All I can do is write about whatever grabs me.
hate sky flying
I used to hate flying. I would sit there, rigid, convinced that if I relaxed, the plane would drop out of the sky.
reading world paper
I've given up reading the papers. Since the world's so obviously bent on killing itself, I decided months ago to sit back and let it.
heart coins meter
Your heart-as you call it-and hers are alike, after all: they are like mine, like everyone's. They resemble nothing so much as those meters you will find on gas-pipes: they only perk up and start pumping when you drop coins in.