In today's programme we speak to two British novelists, Jessie Burton and Sadie Jones, about their work and about notions of success for a writer. Both visited Spain this year to take part in the Hay Segovia literary festival.
Jessie Burton's first novel, The Miniaturist, set in late 17th century Amsterdam, brought her immediate success in the form, of sales, translation into other languages and literary awards, the UK's National Book Awards Book of the year. Jessie Burton's forthcoming second novel, Belonging, is partly set in the Spanish Civil War and the writer has a long term connection with Spain.
Sadie Jones' path to success as a writer was my no means immediate. Her debut novel The Outcast was published when she was 40 years old, and after having worked as a waitress and written 4 unproduced film and stage scripts. The book went on to win the Costa Book Award for a First Novel, to be translated into several languages and adapted by Sadie Jones as a two-part BBC television series. Her next books Small Wars and The Uninvited Guests were similarly successfully. Her most recent novel, Fallout, continues Sadie Jones' preference for diverse, historical settings which have included 1950s Cyprus, an Edwardian country house and a 1970s radical theatre group in London.
