“The 1950s is a key decade in the 20th Century. Each year has a distinctive flavour.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“My fascination with history is as much about the present as it is about the past.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Social and cultural history is often comprised of whatever diaries and letters remain and that is down to chance and wide open… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in reading and writing since the advent of the Gutenberg press.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Small details are a vital part of allowing a reader to make an imaginative connection with long dead historical figures.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“The best historical stories capture the modern imagination because they are, in many senses, still current - part of a continuum.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Archive material is a fabulous starting point - individual documents are like signposted roads, heading to a variety of intriguing possibilities.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I'm drawn to the 1950s for lots of reasons - everything from the fashion to the increasing sense of freedom and modernity… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I'm accustomed to reading Georgian and Victorian letters and sometimes you simply know in your gut that a blithe sentence is covering… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“In crime books it's possible to chart forensic technology by how well it has to be explained to a reader. In mid-Victorian… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Our archives are treasure troves - a testament to many lives lived and the complexity of the way we move forward. They… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“As a novelist it is my job to tell stories that inspire and entertain but I am increasingly mindful that many of… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“While what I write is always largely consistent with the records that remain I freely admit that where historical fact proves a… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Writing historical fiction has many common traits with writing sci-fi or fantasy books. The past is another country - a very different… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“In the doorway of Fortnum & Mason a young couple were kissing, oblivious to the world. The neon signs mounted on the… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I am a storyteller, not a historian, and it's my ambition to create something compelling - something unputdownable and riveting - that… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Looking at my life through the lens of history has made me increasingly grateful to standout women who pushed those boundaries to… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“An important part of deciding where we want to go, as a society and culture, is knowing where we have come from,… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“History was my favourite subject at school and in my spare time I read historical novels voraciously from Heidi to the Scarlet… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I have no problem in moving a date one way or another or coming up with a subplot that gets my characters… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“Occasionally a particular word or phrase in a letter or diary has sparked an entire plot - like an echo from history,… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“History makes my mouth water - and that is as much because of the voids in what documentation remains as what is… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“I have a very strong sense that we only know where we are by looking clearly at where we've come from.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
“As a historical novelist, there is very little I like more than spending time sorting through boxes of old letters, diaries, maps,… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
“Kissing her is like drinking salted water, he thinks. His thirst only increases.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
“We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in reading and writing since the advent of the Gutenberg press.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
“The mass communications that could enable our politics for good have instead turned it into a bland conglomeration of stinted opinion cloaked in the… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
I've found myself moved by letters and diaries in archives as well as trashy, summer blockbusters. It's possible to make a connection with any… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
“Crime writers, I've noticed, can be jumpy. They live in a world where there are murderers on the loose and they haven't been caught… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
“The writing talent of Edinburgh is textured - we have poets, novelists, non-fiction writers, dramatists and more.” — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character. — Sara Sheridan Copy Share
