Book: The Art of Baking Blind
Genre: Commercial fiction for the reading group market
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Publication date(s): Hardback: July 2013; paperback: August 2014
About: Sarah Vaughan always wanted to write but spent 17 years as a journalist before beginning The Art of Baking Blind in earnest the week she turned 40. A year later it was sold in a pre-empt to Hodder. It has also been published by St Martin’s Press in the US and will be published in 14 other countries. Before writing fiction, she worked for 11 years on the Guardian as a news reporter and political correspondent, and trained at the Press Association. She sometimes still hankers for the gratification of turning out 600 words quickly. She has an English degree from Brasenose College, Oxford, and now lives with her husband and two young children just outside Cambridge. She is currently completing her second novel.
Website: www.sarahvaughanauthor.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SarahVaughanAuthor
Twitter handle: @SVaughanAuthor
Location: Cambridge
Writer Superpowers (specialist subjects): I’d be interested in speaking at festivals, bookshop events or libraries either individually or as part of a panel. I would love to talk about families, mother/child relationships, work/life balance and the expectations women still place on themselves. As someone who reinvented themselves after a career as a broadsheet journalist, I could also talk about the readjustment that entailed. My forthcoming novel is set on a farm in north Cornwall, where my family originate; and I would also like to talk about the importance of a sense of place, to a story, and to our identity. I can speak about baking – my first novel is about why we bake and the complex emotions with which we invest food. As Sarah Hall, I have appeared on the BBC Politics Show, BBC Five Live, and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
