Sara Sheridan

“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 yet!”

“My family spans many world religions, ethnicities and nationalities. The truth is that I don't have one identity. I'm Scottish, British, European, Humanist, Atheist and in part at least, culturally Jewish.”

“Mirabelle was always an enigma, and he had the sense that if he pushed her, she’d bolt.”

“People were consuming on average less calories after the war than during the war. Things were still very tough. If you look at the film footage of London streets, even in areas which weren't slums, there are kids in the streets who are dirty and have no shoes on. It was rough. There was a real edge.”

“Writers have a well-deserved reputation for being eccentric. Everything you've heard is true.”

“I think that everyone has something that they will kill for.”

“The world loves the 1950s.”

“Let's be clear - for people like me, who are obsessed with story and for whom words are their medium, writing is the best job possible. I work hard, but I earn more than the national average wage while I play with my imagination, and for me, that's a dream.”

“Maria didn’t fear the sea but, as taught by her father, she respected its power. In her experience the ocean had no intent to drown travellers.”

“In a heartbeat, he understands why religions are born on the sands – there is nothing here for a man but his own mind.”

“Most fellas like the races, though, Miss. It’s only human nature”

“As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age.”

“A journey is an achievement, Maria, just as much as a mathematical proof.”

“I've always felt that good writing does not have to be literary.”

“Looking at my life through the lens of history has made me increasingly grateful to standout women who pushed those boundaries to make the changes from which I have benefited.”

“I know a lot of writers, and everyone works differently, but this is something that we truly have in common across all genres - the fiction has to be real inside your head.”

“A flock of small birds took off from the wall of the fort. They moved like a length of dark silk caught by the breeze as they headed out to sea. Behind them, the sky was the colour of forget-me-nots. The sun blazed.”

“If I hadn't been able to get my first book published, I am not sure what I would have done.”

“Such a night cannot be shaken from a woman’s memory. Such a night changes your life forever.”

“While what I write is always largely consistent with the records that remain I freely admit that where historical fact proves a barrier to invention, I simply move a detail a little one way or another.”