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.
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.
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Esta historia es de la edición March 2019 de Sussex Life.
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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
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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
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
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
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?
THE DIARY
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All in a day's work
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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
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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
