Sarah Salway answers our Five Questions…

Sarah describes herself on her twitter profile as “Novelist, journalist and poet. Garden history obsessive, feminist and very bad runner”. A characteristically self effacing summary of her achievements, passions, drive but also her ability to chuck caution to the wind - to hold up and celebrate the quirkier things in life. Oh and did I... View Article

Oh and did I mention that she is the former Canterbury Laureate and the Royal Literature Fund Fellow at the London School of Economics?

You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book is her first poetry collection, and she is the author of three novels (Something Beginning With, Tell Me Everything and Getting the Picture) and a collection of short stories. Sarah is also the Chair of the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society.

We were eager to read Sarah’s responses to our Five Questions. And here they are…

When you were six what was your ambition?

I wanted to be a crofter in Scotland and to be completely self-sufficient. My father gave me a copy of John Seymour’s ‘Self Sufficiency’ as a joke at around this time and that was it. He’d got it for himself but I’d been whining about being bored during the holidays. In the end, he rarely had the chance to look at it because I would be researching how to slaughter pigs or to make homemade wine. I’d even take it to bed. I was never a girly-girl but it wasn’t the reaction my father had expected! At that time we were living in very suburban Bedford so it was perhaps my first - but not last - flight of the imagination. I’ve still got that book and although I’m very very far from self-sufficient, I get butterflies of excitement reading it even now. It’s like fiction though. In reality I’d hate to live anywhere that wasn’t in walking distance from a bookshop or library.

What makes your heart sing?

Writing in my journal sitting outside on the grass with the sun on my face, the sound of laughter a little way off and a huge ice cream in my hand.

What makes your heart sink?

Seeing how easy it is for humans to lose empathy with others, whether it is happening in war or during ‘everyday’ bullying.

Whose face would you most like to see across the breakfast table?

Well, I love seeing my husband’s so that’s lucky. If not him, then I’d quite like Hemmingway. I imagine he might have caught us some fresh fish too.

Is there one bit of advice or one piece of wisdom that someone shared with you that you find yourself referring back to throughout your life?

As the youngest of four, I learnt very early never to complain that things weren’t fair. It seems a bit depressing, but now I think it’s a good thing to keep in mind. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. And I think it was Virginia Woolf who said, ‘You can’t find peace by avoiding life.’

Thank you Sarah for these lovely images of your life and the things you care about.

Here is an image that conjures up beautiful memories of an installation that you created with the ReAuthoring Project for last year’s festival.