There's Always Hope
Sussex Life|March 2019

Sarah Ann Juckes went above and beyond when researching for her first novel by volunteering for the NSPCC. Simone Hellyer finds out how that experience helped her find hope in the darkest of subject matters.

Simone Hellyer
There's Always Hope

As with most things in life, great things happen when you least expect it. This was certainly true for Pevensey-based author Sarah Ann Juckes when Ele, the character for her first published novel, sprang into her mind on her morning commute.

“The idea came to me on a 20minute train ride from Brighton to Lewes. It was at a time in my life that I really needed to come up with an idea because I had written three books which hadn’t really gone anywhere and I really wanted to get something published,” Sarah says.

“And then, a girl who was trapped in a room with these creatures just came to me and I have spent the past four years working through why she would come to be trapped in this way. I spent a long time speaking to childhood development psychologists and nailing down her story.”

The resulting novel is called Outside and was published by Penguin in January this year. At the centre of the story is Ele, a young girl who has been trapped in a room she calls The Tower her whole life. Despite the protestations of three strange companions who live with her, Ele is convinced that there is more to life than the dark room where they are kept at the mercy of someone she calls Him.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2019 من Sussex Life.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2019 من Sussex Life.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من SUSSEX LIFE مشاهدة الكل
TAKE YOUR TIME
Sussex Life

TAKE YOUR TIME

Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2020
Decorative art
Sussex Life

Decorative art

Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2020
ON THE FRONT FOOT
Sussex Life

ON THE FRONT FOOT

The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2020
NAKED AMBITION
Sussex Life

NAKED AMBITION

In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2020
ROCKET MAN
Sussex Life

ROCKET MAN

Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays

time-read
6 mins  |
November 2020
Revolution man
Sussex Life

Revolution man

Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2020
THE DIARY
Sussex Life

THE DIARY

17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2020
All in a day's work
Sussex Life

All in a day's work

Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2020
My favourite Sussex
Sussex Life

My favourite Sussex

Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2020
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Sussex Life

10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove

Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope

time-read
4 mins  |
November 2020