Sarah Winman grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Weber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to act in theatre, film and television. Her first novel, When God Was a Rabbit was an international bestseller, her second A Year of Marvellous Ways was a Sunday Times bestseller and Tin Man was shortlisted for the Costa Novel award 2018.
1. Why do you tell stories?
Ha! Good question. I often ask myself that. A simple answer is because I always have. As an actor and as a writer. Somewhere I enjoy the journey of the narrative. The make-believe is really important to me - the imaginative shift away from reality. And within that shift lies problem solving and seeking an aspirational alternative, confronting fears, working out life on the page. That’s why themes become recurring. Storytelling is what I do to be me.
2. Describe Still Life in one (or two) sentence(s).
A story of found family and opportunity and love and the value of art. My answer to right-wing rhetoric and division.
3. Still Life has an absolutely stellar cast of characters and I could ask you about any number of them as they are all so engaging. But I wondered if you could tell us how you came to have the character of Cressy in your imaginative world?
I never really think about my characters before I write them. They come to me on the page as I start writing – how they may confront a situation or how different they are from a previous character. But as I look back, I see that I was obviously influenced by my two grandfathers who both left school at thirteen. My mum’s dad self-educated and was a quiet man who read a lot. My dad’s dad lived with a long-held belief that he was stupid. Between those two men lay Cressy.
4. What connections did you want to make between art and history in this novel?
Consciously, I didn’t set out to make any connections. As my art historian friend used to say: There’s no secret about art history – It’s simply history shown through art.
And that’s an exciting way to view history I think; in the context of what someone has written or painted or sculpted. We get the inner life, the turmoil, the joy of the time. We get the human story. And we get the cyclical nature of history and human beings, because we as a species seldom change. I love the fact that throughout the centuries, tourists have stood in front of a certain painting or statue in Florence and have said the same thing about it. I have heard these conversations across the two years of research, eavesdropping in the Loggia dei Lanzi or in the Uffizi. Great art is enduring. As Evelyn says, It repositions our sight and judgement.
5. This book seems so much to be a story about all the beautiful ways we connect with each other and make families outside of our blood connections—what does family mean or look like to you? And what about Romantic love?
Family means togetherness of those I love. And that in itself is a mix of friendship and blood connection. I’m a gay woman who came out in the early 80’s. A harsh climate for anyone different from ‘the norm.’ AIDS was beginning to decimate communities, the rhetoric against LGBTQI people was hateful and many young gay men and women were disowned by their family. I wasn’t. But the seeking of the ‘other family’ became so natural during that time. In my first novel When God was a Rabbit, Nancy says to Joe: Being gay will be the making of you.
Looking back, I think that was true for me. It shattered everything I thought I knew about myself and the life I thought I was going to lead, and it took me on the most wonderful adventure. And still does. I feel grateful for what I’ve seen and experienced and the alternative ways of living and loving that coming out as gay during that time gave me.
6. The blue parrot, Claude, is an oracular and comedic presence in the novel. Have you known a Claude such as this?
I haven’t! Claude was written for the comedy but also a touch of mystery... Many pubs in the East End would have had a parrot or songbird because in a street called Club Row in the East End there was a market that sold birds and had done so for centuries. Probably influenced by the Huguenots who had fled France and come to the area. And also, the docks were nearby, and exotic birds and animals were always sold on the black market.
7. What literary or artistic influences were you wanting to celebrate in the writing of this book? Tell me about your relationship with Florence.
My relationship with Florence is fairly new. It just so happened that I was visiting the city in January 2015 as the culmination of a basic Renaissance art course I’d recently completed. It was then that I learnt about the flood and the mud angels and at that moment the story found me. But I had no idea it would turn into Still Life, as really the centrality of the story was very much 1966. I felt very daunted by ‘another’ book about Florence and also the fact that it would be the first time that I was going to write about a place I didn’t know. But I spent two years going backwards and forwards and working out what I wanted to say.
And as I’ve said many times, because of the lurch to right-wing politics in my country (and so much of the world) and the horrendous f**k up of Brexit and the division it caused, I wanted to write a story of joy and entertainment, as a form of resistance and also to recharge the batteries for the long fight ahead. So, joy and entertainment became the engine and the tone of the book and that became significant. At that point, Forster’s A Room With A View became incredibly important. And Forster himself too. Still Life is a queer novel, and so is ARWAV in many ways – a gay sensibility runs through it. I wanted to write the book Forster couldn’t in his lifetime. I wanted Evelyn to live the life Forster couldn’t as a young gay man.
8. When and where do you write?
Up until last February, I was mainly writing in bed due to our cramped living arrangements! We’ve now moved so this has changed, but I don’t know where I shall write the next novel. I write full-time, so my schedule tends to be 10am-6pm when I have a story and am at the desk. Before that, it’s about following every creative nudge.
9. What are three things that sustain you as an author, or while you’re writing?
Reading is essential. Writers inspire me to be a better writer (and a better person often). I love going to the cinema. Or the theatre when I can. I love stories in whatever form they come. I love going to the women’s ponds at Hampstead Heath to swim. It strips away everything unessential.
10. Name three books that you couldn’t live without?
I am going to re-phrase that question, if I may, to: How poorer would my life have been had I not read the following books.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, A Room With A View by E.M Forster, Four Quartets by T.S Eliot, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, Any Human Heart by William Boyd, Honey From A Weed by Patience Gray.
Bonus Question:
What books are you reading, or keen to be reading soon?
I went to Foyles bookshop recently and bought a delicious twelve books. Three of which are:
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Circe by Madeline Miller. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.