Quotes from Sara Sheridan

One of the great things about the Fifties is there are so many secrets - people who've come back from the war and done these terrible things that they don't want to think about, or can't say what they did because they signed the Official Secrets Act.

I'm grateful that I've enjoyed the support of libraries, bookshops and institutional funders.

Personally I estimate about a third of my time is spent on author events, social media and traditional publicity.

As a historical novelist, there is very little I like more than spending time sorting through boxes of old letters, diaries, maps, trinkets, and baubles.

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.

The law don't like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.

Most people do a good deal of whatever they do motivated by love. For me, few stories are truly complete without it.

I'm unique - a cosmopolitan mix.

The Best of Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Hailey and the Comets, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine all topped the charts in the '50s. Load a playlist of rock n' roll royalty. You're spoilt for choice.

Living in Edinburgh, I consider myself particularly lucky - we have the biggest book festival in the world, a plethora of fascinating libraries and museums, and some of the greatest architecture in Europe.

Writers have it easy. If you write a bestseller or have your book made into a movie, you'll never have to work again, or so the myth goes.

My identity has always been confused. Born in Edinburgh of a Scottish/Russian/Jewish mother and an English/Irish/Catholic father, there is no form of guilt to which I was not subjected in my childhood. Members of my immediate family live all over the world - a diaspora of cousins, aunts, uncles and more in a dizzying mix.

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.

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

Parts of my 20s and 30s have gone by in a flash but my childhood is with me all the time.

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.

I realized early on that being an author is a hugely misunderstood job. Because there are no pay grades and very little structure, people make interesting assumptions about the profession.

On of the prerequisites for my mobile phone is that I have to be able to fling it at a wall if I lose my temper.

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph or painting.

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph, or a painting.

I'm a professional writer and I consider it part of my job to publicise my work and these days part of that job is done online.

I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.

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 kind of writing - as long as the writing is good.

The mass communications that could enable our politics for good have instead turned it into a bland conglomeration of stinted opinion cloaked in the occasional media frenzy of blame or denial.