Sarah Waters

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Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters at a book signing for The Night Watch
Born: 1966
Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Occupation: novelist
Nationality: British
Writing period: 1998-present
Genres: historical fiction
Debut works: Tipping the Velvet (1998)
Influences: Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Mary Shelley, the Brontës, John Fowles, A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter[1]
Website: http://www.sarahwaters.com

Sarah Waters is a British novelist. She is best known for her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, as well the novels that followed, including Affinity, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch.

Contents

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Childhood

Sarah Waters was born in Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1966.

She grew up in a family that included her father, mother, and sister. Her mother was a housewife and her father an engineer who worked on oil refineries.[2] She describes her family as "pretty idyllic, very safe and nurturing." Her father, "a fantastically creative person," encouraged her to build and invent.[1]

Waters said, "When I picture myself as a child, I see myself constructing something, out of plasticine or papier maché or Meccano; I used to enjoy writing poems and stories, too." She wrote stories and poems that she describes as "dreadful gothic pastiches," but had not planned her career.[1]

“ I don’t know if I thought about it much, really. I know that, for a long time, I wanted to be an archaeologist – like lots of kids. And I think I knew I was headed for university, even though no one else in my family had been. I was always bright at school, and really enjoyed learning. I remember my mother telling me that I might one day go to university and write a thesis, and explaining what a thesis was; and it seemed a very exciting prospect. I was clearly a bit of a nerd.[1] ”

Waters was a "completely tomboyish child", but "got into" femininity in her teenage years. She had always been attracted to boys, and it was not until university that she first fell in love with a woman.[2]

[edit] Education

Waters attended university, and earned degrees in English literature. She received a BA from the University of Kent, an MA from Lancaster University, and a PhD from the University of London's Queen Mary and Westfield College, as it was known in her time. The work for her PhD dissertation, ('Wolfskins and togas : lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present'),[3] served as inspiration and material for future books. As part of her research, she read 19th-century pornography, in which she came across the title of her first book, Tipping the Velvet.[4]

[edit] Daily life

Waters lives in a top-floor Victorian flat in Kennington, south-east London.[4][2] The rooms, which have slanted ceilings, used to be servant quarters.[5] Waters lives with her two cats.[5]

[edit] Career

Before writing novels, Waters worked as an academic, earning a doctorate and teaching.[6] Waters went straight from her doctoral thesis to her first novel. It was during the process of writing her thesis that she thought she would write a novel; she began as soon as the thesis was complete.[1] Her work is very research-intensive, which is an aspect she enjoys.[7]

All of her books contain lesbian themes, and she does not mind being labeled a lesbian writer. She said, "I'm writing with a clear lesbian agenda in the novels. It's right there at the heart of the books." She calls it "incidental," because of her own sexual orientation. "That's how it is in my life, and that's how it is, really, for most lesbian and gay people, isn't it? It's sort of just there in your life."[7]

[edit] Tipping the Velvet (1998)

Main article: Tipping the Velvet

Her debut work was the Victorian picaresque Tipping the Velvet, published by Virago in 1998. The novel took 18 months to write.[8] The book takes its title from Victorian slang for cunnilingus.[4] Waters describes the novel as "very upbeat [...] kind of a romp."[8]

It won a 1999 Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday / John Llewelyn Rhys Prize.[4]

In 2002, the novel was adapted into a three-part television serial of the same name for BBC Two. It has been translated into at least 24 languages, including Chinese, Latvian, Hungarian, Korean and Slovenian.[9]

[edit] Affinity (1999)

Main article: Affinity (novel)

Waters's second book, Affinity was published a year after her first, in 1999. The novel, also set in the Victorian era, centres on the world of Victorian spiritualism. While finishing her debut novel, Waters had been working on an academic paper on spiritualism. She combined her interests in spiritualism, prisons, and the Victorian era in Affinity, which tells the story of the relationship between an upper middle-class woman and a imprisoned spiritualist.

The novel is less light-hearted than the ones that preceded and followed it. Waters found it less enjoyable to write.[8] "It was a very gloomy world to have to go into every day," she said.[10]

Affinity won the Stonewall Book Award and Somerset Maugham Award.

[edit] Fingersmith (2002)

Main article: Fingersmith (novel)

Fingersmith was published in 2002. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize.

Fingersmith was made into a serial for BBC One in 2005, starring Sally Hawkins, Elaine Cassidy and Imelda Staunton. Waters approved of the adaptation, calling it "especially a really good quality show," and said it was "very faithful to the book. It was spookily faithful to the book at times, which was exciting."[7]

[edit] The Night Watch (2006)

Main article: The Night Watch (Waters novel)

The Night Watch took four years for Waters to write.[1] It differs from the first three novels in its time period and the way it was written. Although her thesis and previous books focused on the 19th century, Waters said that "Something about the 1940s called to me."[1] It was also less tightly plotted than her other books. Waters said,

“ I had more or less to figure the book out as I went along – a very time-consuming and unnerving experience for me, as I tried out scenes and chapters in lots of different ways. I ended up with a pile of rejected scenes about three feet high. It was satisfying in the end, realising just what should go where; but a lot of the time it felt like a wrestling match.[1] ”

The novel tells the stories of four women in 1947 London. Waters describes it as "fundamentally a novel about disappointment and loss and betrayal," as well as "real contact between people and genuine intimacy."[7]

In 2005, Waters received the highest bid during an auction to immortalize in one of her novels the name of real person. The auction featured many notable British novelists, and the bidder, author Martina Cole, had a modified version of her name featured in the novel.[11]

[edit] Bibliography

  • Tipping the Velvet, 1998
  • Affinity, 1999
  • Fingersmith, 2002
  • The Night Watch, 2006

[edit] Adaptations

Sarah Waters appeared briefly in both Tipping the Velvet, as an audience member, and Fingersmith, as a maid.[12]

[edit] Awards

Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Writers in January 2003. The same year, she received the South Bank Award for Literature. She was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.[4]

Each of her novels has received awards as well.

[edit] Tipping the Velvet

  • Betty Trask Award, 1999
  • Library Journal's Best Book of the Year, 1999
  • Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, 1999
  • New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award, 1999
  • Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction (shortlist), 2000
  • Lambda Literary Award for Fiction, 2000

[edit] Affinity

  • Stonewall Book Award (American Library Association GLBT Roundtable Book Award), 2000
  • Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award (shortlist), 2000
  • Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000
  • Lambda Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist), 2000
  • Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist), 2000
  • Somerset Maugham Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000
  • Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, 2000

[edit] Fingersmith

  • British Book Awards Author of the Year, 2002
  • Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, 2002
  • Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2002
  • Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2002

[edit] The Night Watch

  • Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006
  • Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h McGrane, Michelle. "Sarah Waters on writing: 'If I waited for inspiration to strike, it would never happen!' (Interview)", LitNet, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  2. ^ a b c Allardice, Lisa. "Uncharted Waters", The Guardian, June 1, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  3. ^ http://catalogue.library.qmul.ac.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/1fF9LuFTOe/MAINLIB/246850125/88
  4. ^ a b c d e Waters, Sarah. Biography. sarahwaters.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  5. ^ a b Taylor, Debbie. "THE Mslexia INTERVIEW - Sarah Waters talks to Debbie Taylor", libertas.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  6. ^ Page, Benedicte. "Her Thieving Hands", Virago.
  7. ^ a b c d Lo, Malinda. "Interview with Sarah Waters", AfterEllen.com, April 6, 2006.
  8. ^ a b c Hogan, Ron. "Sarah Waters (Interview)", BookSense.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  9. ^ "Sarah Waters: Interview", Time Out London. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  10. ^ "Sarah Waters: From Victoria to VE Day (Interview)", Powells.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  11. ^ "Book role auction nudges £20,000", BBC News, 31 March, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-02-24. (in English)
  12. ^ "Interview with Sarah Waters", Gingerbeer.
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