Sarah Dunant
Encyclopedia
Sarah Dunant is the author of many international bestsellers, most recently Sacred Hearts, the completion of her Italian historical trilogy.
She attended Godolphin and Latymer School
in Hammersmith, London and read history at Newnham College, Cambridge
and has worked in theatre, radio and television. She lives in London for most of the year.
on BBC2 and has also presented Woman's Hour
and A Good Read
on Radio 4
. She also hosted the BBC2 series Did You See...?
whilst regular host Ludovic Kennedy
was absent due to ill-health.
Her characters are frequently women of the world, able to hold their own against men and open to sexual experimentation and rule-breaking, which drives a lot of her plots' energy. This is probably because even when she sets her story in Renaissance
Florence
, as she does in The Birth of Venus, the 'whodunit' plot construct still persists, and the quest to solve a mystery or a crime carries on alongside the emotional involvements of the characters. Having said that, it would not be adequate to say that she writes 'thrillers', since there is much more to be found in the books than generic thriller-type entertainment.
's V.I. Warshawski and Cordelia Grey
in P. D. James
's works, but she is closer to Ellery Queen
, Georges Simenon
's Inspector Maigret
or Dashiell Hammett
's Sam Spade
in her attitude to her work and the 'feel' of her character.
She attended Godolphin and Latymer School
Godolphin and Latymer School
The Godolphin and Latymer School is an independent school for 700 girls aged eleven to eighteen in London. Ms Margaret Rudland was the head mistress of the school for over 20 years before being succeeded by Ms Ruth Mercer.-History:...
in Hammersmith, London and read history at Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
and has worked in theatre, radio and television. She lives in London for most of the year.
Early career
Sarah Dunant began as a writer for various publications. As a broadcaster she was one of the principals responsible for hosting The Late ShowThe Late Show (BBC2 TV series)
The Late Show is a British television arts magazine programme that was broadcast on BBC Two weeknights at 11.15pm — directly after Newsnight — often referred to as the "graveyard slot" in terms of television scheduling....
on BBC2 and has also presented Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...
and A Good Read
A Good Read
A Good Read is one of BBC Radio 4's longest running programmes where two guests join the main presenter to choose and discuss their favourite book. Sue MacGregor stepped down in 2010 as the programme's longest serving presenter...
on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. She also hosted the BBC2 series Did You See...?
Did You See...?
Did You See...? was a long-running British television documentary series which began on the BBC in 1980. The programme took a look back at the week's television with a discussion between the presenter and three guests. In the first run there was also an item on related issues...
whilst regular host Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United...
was absent due to ill-health.
The Books
Sarah Dunant's work ranges over a number of genres and eras, going from hard-boiled detective fiction to historical thriller. Her narratives are hard to categorise due to their inventive treatment of time and space, and a favoured device of hers is to run two or more plot strands concurrently, as she does to great effect in Mapping the Edge. A common concern running through her work is women's perceptions and points of view, but the serious stuff is always embedded deep below the surface. Her work is polished and taut, and her handling of narrative pace is nearly always impeccable.Her characters are frequently women of the world, able to hold their own against men and open to sexual experimentation and rule-breaking, which drives a lot of her plots' energy. This is probably because even when she sets her story in Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, as she does in The Birth of Venus, the 'whodunit' plot construct still persists, and the quest to solve a mystery or a crime carries on alongside the emotional involvements of the characters. Having said that, it would not be adequate to say that she writes 'thrillers', since there is much more to be found in the books than generic thriller-type entertainment.
Hannah Wolfe
Sarah Dunant is the creator of the female private detective Hannah Wolfe who features in the trilogy Birth Marks, Fatlands and Under My Skin. Superficially genre fiction, these books nevertheless show the experimental boldness that characterises Dunant's later works. In Birth Marks Hannah sets out to investigate the death of a young girl who is eight months pregnant, and is drawn into a gripping story involving the ethics of surrogate motherhood. Fatlands has Hannah playing nursemaid to the difficult teenage daughter of a scientist. As she investigates the Vandamed Corporation she is caught between the ethics of large scale industrial animal experimentation and the concerns of NGOs and activists on the other. In Under My Skin Hannah ends up at a health farm and in the process of investigating a series of sabotage attacks, confronts issues to do with the beauty industry and women's relationships with their bodies. Hannah herself is a hard-boiled, wisecracking, tough character in the hard-core tradition of detective fiction, but with her own individual twists. She could be compared with Sara ParetskySara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction.-Life and career:Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Kansas, graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in...
's V.I. Warshawski and Cordelia Grey
Cordelia Grey
Cordelia Gray is the main protagonist of P. D. James's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and of The Skull Beneath the Skin. She works as a private detective in London, having inherited a detective agency on the death of her boss...
in P. D. James
P. D. James
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
's works, but she is closer to Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
, Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.-Early life and education:...
's Inspector Maigret
Maigret
Jules Maigret, Maigret to most people, including his wife, is a fictional police detective, actually a commissaire or commissioner of the Paris "Brigade Criminelle" , created by writer Georges Simenon.Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories about Maigret were published between 1931 and...
or Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
's Sam Spade
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
in her attitude to her work and the 'feel' of her character.
External links
- Transcript of interview with Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
, The Book ShowThe Book ShowThe Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
, ABC Radio National, 15 April 2007 - Sarah Dunant interview from Open2.net
- Listen to an audio slideshow interview with Sarah Dunant talking about Sacred Hearts on The Interview Online
- Sarah is now a Fellow on the MA in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University