Sarah Ann Waters (born 21 July 1966) is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as '' Tipping the Velvet'' and '' Fingersmith''.

Life and education

Early life

Sarah Waters was born in

Neyland Neyland is a town and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Cleddau and the upstream end of the Milford Haven estuary. The Cleddau Bridge carrying the A477 links Pembroke Dock with Neyland. Etymology The name of the town is ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Park oc ...

, Wales in 1966. She later moved to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the ...

when she was eight years old. She grew up in a family that included her father Ron, mother Mary, and a "much older" sister. Her mother was a housewife and her father an engineer who worked on oil refineries. She describes her family as "pretty idyllic, very safe and nurturing". Her father, "a fantastically creative person", encouraged her to build and invent. Waters said, "When I picture myself as a child, I see myself constructing something, out of

plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

Meccano Meccano is a brand of model construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, and plastic parts that are connected using nut ...

; I used to enjoy writing poems and stories, too." She wrote stories and poems that she describes as "dreadful gothic pastiches", but had not planned her career. Despite her obvious enjoyment of writing, she did not feel any special calling or preference for becoming a novelist in her youth. Waters was a supporter of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

, joining as a result of her boyfriend at the time. Politically, she has always identified as a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...

Education

After Milford Haven Grammar School, Waters attended university and earned degrees in English literature. She received a BA from the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

, an MA from

Lancaster University , mottoeng = Truth lies open to all , established = , endowment = £13.9 million , budget = £317.9 million , type = Public , city = Bailrigg, City of Lancaster , country = England , coor = , campus = Bailrigg , faculty ...

, and a PhD from

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. Her PhD thesis, entitled ''Wolfskins and togas : lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present'', served as inspiration and material for future books. As part of her research she read 19th-century pornography, in which she came across the title of her first book, '' Tipping the Velvet''. However, her literary influences are also found in the popular classics of Victorian literature, such as

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for '' The Moonstone'' (1868), which has b ...

and the Brontës, and in the contemporary novelists that combine a keen interest in Victoriana with a post-modernist approach to fiction, especially A.S. Byatt and

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Aft ...

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

's '' Nights at the Circus'' had a huge influence on her début novel as well, and Waters praises her for her literary prose, her "common touch", and her commitment to feminism.

Personal life

Waters came out as lesbian in the late 1980s. She has been in a relationship with copy editor Lucy Vaughan since 2002. As of 2007, she lives in

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

, south-east London.

Career

Before writing novels, Waters worked as an academic, earning a doctorate and teaching. Waters went directly from her doctoral thesis to her first novel. It was during the process of writing her thesis that she thought she would write a novel; she began as soon as the thesis was complete. Her work is very research-intensive, which is an aspect she enjoys. Waters was briefly a member of the long-running London North Writers circle, whose members have included the novelists

Charles Palliser Charles Palliser (born December 11, 1947 in Holyoke, Massachusetts) is a best-selling novelist, American-born but British-based. His most well-known novel, '' The Quincunx'', has sold over a million copies internationally. He is the elder brother ...

and Neil Blackmore, among others. With the exception of ''The Little Stranger'', all of her books contain lesbian themes, and she does not mind being labelled a lesbian writer. She said, "I'm writing with a clear lesbian agenda in the novels. It's right there at the heart of the books." Despite this "common agenda in teasing out lesbian stories from parts of history that are regarded as quite heterosexual", she also calls her lesbian protagonists "incidental", due to her own sexual orientation. "That's how it is in my life, and that's how it is, really, for most lesbian and gay people, isn't it? It's sort of just there in your life." Her writing influences include

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

, the Brontës,

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

, and

''Tipping the Velvet'' (1998)

Her debut work was the Victorian picaresque '' Tipping the Velvet'', published by

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femini ...

in 1998. The novel took 18 months to write. The book takes its title from Victorian slang for cunnilingus. Waters describes the novel as a "very upbeat ..kind of a romp". It won a 1999

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...

, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday /

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdo ...

. In 2002, the novel was adapted into a three-part television serial of the same name for

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

. It has been translated into at least 24 languages, including Chinese, Latvian, Hungarian, Korean and

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

''Affinity'' (1999)

Waters's second book, '' Affinity'', was published a year after her first, in 1999. The novel, also set in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

, centres on the world of Victorian

Spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase ...

. While finishing her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, Waters had been working on an academic paper on spiritualism. She combined her interests in spiritualism, prisons, and the Victorian era in ''Affinity'', which tells the story of the relationship between an upper-middle-class woman and an imprisoned spiritualist. The novel is less light-hearted than the ones that preceded and followed it. Waters found it less enjoyable to write. "It was a very gloomy world to have to go into every day", she said. ''Affinity'' won the Stonewall Book Award and Somerset Maugham Award. Andrew Davies wrote a screenplay adapting ''Affinity'' and the resulting feature film premiered 19 June 2008 at the opening night of

Frameline The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival at the

Castro Theater The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street in the Castro District, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque faça ...

''Fingersmith'' (2002)

'' Fingersmith'' was published in 2002. It was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

and the Orange Prize. ''Fingersmith'' was made into a serial for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

in 2005, starring Sally Hawkins, Elaine Cassidy and

Imelda Staunton Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre prod ...

. Waters approved of the adaptation, calling it "a really good quality show", and said it was "very faithful to the book. It was spookily faithful to the book at times, which was exciting." The novel was later adapted again by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n director

Park Chan-wook Park Chan-wook ( ; born 23 August 1963) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. He is considered as one of the most prominent filmmakers of South Korean cinema as well as world cinema in 21st century. ...

into the 2016 film '' The Handmaiden'', which set the story in Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s. ''Fingersmith'' was named by singer and artist

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

as one of his "top 100 books".

''The Night Watch'' (2006)

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

'' took four years for Waters to write. It differs from the first three novels in its time period and its structure. Although her thesis and previous books focused on the 19th century, Waters said that "Something about the 1940s called to me". It was also less tightly plotted than her other books. Waters said, The novel tells the stories of a man and three women in 1940s London. Waters describes it as "fundamentally a novel about disappointment and loss and betrayal", as well as "real contact between people and genuine intimacy". In 2005, Waters received the highest bid (£1,000) during a charity auction in which the prize was the opportunity to have the winner's name immortalised in ''The Night Watch.'' The auction featured many notable British novelists, and the name of the bidder, author

Martina Cole Eilidh Martina Cole is a British crime writer. she has released twenty-six novels about crime, most of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, ''Dangerous Lady'', '' The Jump'', '' The Take'' and '' The Runaway'' have be ...

, appeared in Waters' novel. ''The Night Watch'' was adapted for television by BBC2 and broadcast on 12 July 2011.

''The Little Stranger'' (2009)

Also set in the 1940s, ''The Little Stranger'' also differs from Waters' previous novels. It is her first with no overtly lesbian characters. Initially, Waters set out to write a book about the economic changes brought by socialism in postwar Britain, and reviewers note the connection with

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

. During the novel's construction, it turned into a ghost story, focusing on a family of gentry who own a large country house they can no longer afford to maintain.

''The Paying Guests'' (2014)

This novel is set in the 1920s, in the social and economic aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Households are in reduced circumstances and Frances Wray and her mother have to take in lodgers to keep going. The developing lesbian relationship between Frances and lodger Lilian Barber provides a complex backdrop for a murder investigation that takes up the latter half of the book. ''The Observer'' said: "The inimitable Sarah Waters handles a dramatic key change with aplomb in her new novel set in 1920s south London". ''The Telegraph'' described it as "eerie, virtuoso writing".

Honours and awards

Waters was named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Writers in January 2003. The same year, she received the South Bank Award for Literature. She was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. In both 2006 and 2009 she won "Writer of the Year" at the annual

Stonewall Awards The Stonewall Awards was an annual event held by the British charity Stonewall to recognise people who have affected the lives of British lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. The event was first held in 2006 at the Royal Academy of Arts and fro ...

. She was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

in 2009. She holds an honorary degree from Lancaster University. She has featured on the Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

for services to literature. Each of her novels has received awards as well.

''Tipping the Velvet''

, 1999 * Library Journal's Best Book of the Year, 1999 * Mail on Sunday/

, 1999 * New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award, 1999 * Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction (shortlist), 2000 *

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

for Fiction, 2000

''Affinity''

* Stonewall Book Award (American Library Association GLBT Roundtable Book Award), 2000 * Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award (shortlist), 2000 * Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000 * Lambda Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist), 2000 * Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist), 2000 * Somerset Maugham Award, 2000 *

Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award The Sunday Times / University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year award is a literary prize awarded to a British author under the age of 35 for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. It is administered by the Society of Authors and ha ...

, 2000 * The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japan, '' Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 2004''

''Fingersmith''

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors’ organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its Dagger awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. T ...

Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, 2002 *

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

for Fiction (shortlist), 2002 * Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2002 * British Book Awards Author of the Year, 2003 * The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japan, ''

Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 2005 is an annual mystery fiction guide book published by Takarajimasha. The guide book publishes a list of the top ten mystery books published in Japan in the previous year. 1988 ''Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 1988'' (JICC Shuppankyoku. December, 198 ...

''The Night Watch''

* Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006 * Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006 *

, 2007

''The Little Stranger''

* Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2009 * Nominee for

Shirley Jackson Award The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic are presented a ...

, 2009

''The Paying Guests''

* Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (shortlist) 2015

Bibliography

Non-fiction

* * *

Novels

* '' Tipping the Velvet'', 1998 * '' Affinity'', 1999 * '' Fingersmith'', 2002 * ''

'', 2006 * '' The Little Stranger'', 2009 * ''

The Paying Guests ''The Paying Guests'' is a 2014 novel by Welsh author Sarah Waters. It was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and named "Fiction Book of the Year" by '' The Sunday Times'' who said that "this novel magnificently confirms Sarah ...

'', 2014

Critical studies and reviews of Waters' work

Adaptations

Television

* '' Tipping the Velvet'' (2002), BBC Two * '' Fingersmith'' (2005), BBC One * '' Affinity'' (2008), ITV1 * ''

'' (2011), BBC Two

Stage

* '' Tipping the Velvet'' (2015) *''The Night Watch'' (2019)

Film

*'' The Handmaiden'' (2016) *'' The Little Stranger'' (2018)

References

External links

Official websiteBritish Council Biography and BibliographyVirago Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waters, Sarah 1966 births Living people 20th-century Welsh novelists 21st-century Welsh novelists 20th-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh writers Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of Graduate College, Lancaster Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of the University of Kent British Book Award winners Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction winners Stonewall Book Award winners British lesbian writers LGBT writers from Wales People from Pembrokeshire Welsh women novelists People educated at Milford Haven School British LGBT novelists People from Milford Haven Officers of the Order of the British Empire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists Welsh historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age