INTERVIEW WITH: SALLY-ANNE MARTYN

Author Sally-Anne Martyn. Image credit: Andrew Collier

Q: Describe your latest book in three words.

A: Creeping, remote, thriller. 

Q: What author, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?

A: James Herbert. I like his take on horror / darker stories. That they can also be part love stories, thrillers etc. I also love that his stories are very commercial and still well loved and read, many years later. I would also like to hear more about his time as a child, living in the east end of London, the inspiration for his debut 'Rats.'

Q: Who would you want to play your main character in a film/tv adaptation — and why?

A: For Jenny, Sally Hawkins was always on my mind while writing. She can play withdrawn and feisty equally well! Amanda Abbington would make a great Dr Cavendish, because she's beautiful and 'put together' like the doctor, but would be great at bringing out the darker, chaotic and determined side of her. For Amy, it would be an unkown, a young woman who doesn't fit the usual lead stereotype of a lead actor. 

Q: What is the most interesting/unique thing you've had to research for a book? 

A: I worked in a crumbling Victorian asylum (the inspiration for 'Pine End'), so I knew how those buildings felt already, but to give myself a refresher I did an overnight 'ghost' hunt at Newsham Park (a derelict orphanage) in Liverpool. To be honest though, I don't have to be researching to do ghost hunts, I've done quite a few!

Q: What are you currently reading and watching?

A: I'm currently reading 'The Call of Cassandra Rose' by Sophia Spiers and re-watching the Swedish version of 'Let the Right One In' , one of my favourite vampire films. If it's TV it's usually the latest nordic noir.

Order Sally-Anne Martyn’s debut-novel, The Clinic, here!