Sara Sheridan’s novel The Secrets of Blythswood Square does for Glasgow what The Fair Botanists did for Edinburgh, presenting a fresh and fascinating depiction of the city as it was in the 19th century, digging beneath perceived wisdom to offer a clearer picture. SNACK caught up with Sara ahead of her appearance at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival to learn more.
Why did you want to tell the stories which are central to The Secrets of Blythswood Square? Was there a single inspiration?
Not only one! But I have spent years admiring Adamson and Hill’s amazing 1840s photographs of Scotland and thinking I’d like to write about early photography as a medium. It probably started there. I chose 1846 because Frederick Douglass was in Scotland – the most photographed man of the 19th century didn’t have a single snap taken during his visit. It all grew from that, really. For me the real history comes first and then I construct a story around it.
Can you tell us about the central characters of Charlotte Nicholl and Ellory McHale? Are they based on real historical figures?
Only loosely. Charlotte is a Glasgow heiress and there were a few of those. They were generally extremely respectable and went in for philanthropy so I had fun challenging that in Charlotte’s character as I wrote her. Ellory is based on a gap. Where were the women in early photography? I tracked down an 1850s studio in Glasgow run by a woman – May Borthwick – but there was very little information about her and as far as I’m aware, none of her pictures survive. Ellory’s a testament to that lost heritage.
The novel is set primarily in Glasgow at a time of great change – why did the time and place appeal?
Most historical books set in Glasgow focus heavily on misery, poverty, and abuse. It seemed to me that there was a bougie, Enlightenment city that had been ignored. Alasdair Gray said that people see Paris, London, and New York all the time, in the round before they ever go to those places. Scottish cities don’t benefit from that. That felt like a challenge to me – writing lost Georgian/early Victorian Glasgow, when town was the place to live and they’d just decided to dredge the Clyde. Glasgow is a cathedral city – it’s always been a religious stronghold. So Frederick Douglass’s stooshie with the Free Kirk hit particularly hard in the city here. That was it – I was off!
Was there a lot of research involved, and is it then difficult to leave some of what you have learned on the cutting room floor, so to speak?
Mounds. I already knew a lot about the 1840s but it was general, so I had to dig into what Glasgow was really like, the ins and outs of Douglass’s visit, and the processes of early photography in its own social context. How shocking, genuinely, would it be if a maid showed her ankle flirtatiously in a photograph? Turns out VERY. I worked off contemporary maps as well as local accounts of life at the time. It was fascinating. Anything that didn’t make it in is still in my head for later.
For me, the best historical fiction speaks to the present day. Is commentary on modern life inevitable, or is it at the heart of what you do?
That’s exactly it! A good historical novel, for me, is a time machine that takes the reader back to where they come from and in doing so casts light on where we are now. The Secrets of Blythswood Square went a long way for me in explaining the ins and outs of modern Glasgow, where I’ve just relocated. It’s such a great city – magnificent, metropolitan and good-hearted. But there is a sectarianism that shocks me cos I’m from the east coast and researching the book I could see the roots of that so clearly. For The Fair Botanists it was interesting to delve into the heart of Hanoverian Edinburgh and look at where the city’s more conformist history came from, plus writing about the New Town as it was being built was a dream.
Did you enjoy switching cities for this book after The Fair Botanists? Do you understand more about both through writing about them?
This was one of the best things. I have written about a lot of different places and I always walk away with a strong sense of how different places form the lives of the people who live there. Edinburgh and Glasgow are less than an hour apart but they are different worlds.
Do you ever surprise yourself as you write?
All. The. Time. I’m not a planner; I start writing every day thinking ‘what’s the best thing that could happen next?’ This means I experience the book as I’m writing it, just as a reader will experience it when they pick it up. But slower. Characters sometimes just stroll onto the page. In Chapter Ten of The Secrets of Blythswood Square Jeremiah Catto literally appeared in a doorway. ‘There you are,’ I thought. ‘You’re going to stir things up.’
You’re appearing at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. At a time when so many are under threat, do you feel book festivals have an important role?
EIBF is so important to me. As a child I went every year and it’s part of what made writing possible for me. I had seen authors, I knew they were real people and this was a job that could be done. Today as a writer it’s a great opportunity to meet other people in the industry. It’s a melting pot backstage, which is really valuable culturally. We have a lot of book festivals across Scotland and each one is different in the links it forges in the local community, but all of them provide a point for debate and new ideas.
The Secrets of Blythswood Square is published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Photo Credit: Aleksandra Modrzejewska
