Sarah Salway – författare

One of the great hidden gems of the past decade.Written in brief entries from ‘Ambition’ to ‘Zzzzz’ Salway's confident debut novel chronicles the existential ups and downs of British 20-something Verity Bell.The alphabetically arranged mini-chapters make for an inventive and episodic narrative, as Verity muses on her career (A is for Attitude: "I work as a secretary in the media… something I don't always talk about because some people seem to think I'm showing off"), her friendship with the fabulous Sally (B is for Best Friends: "my best friend, Sally, has become the mistress of a millionaire called Colin"), her feelings on Gwyneth Paltrow (G is for You-Know-Who: "If I looked like Gwyneth Paltrow, nothing could possibly go wrong in my life") and other issues of love, friendship and family.With both parents deceased, Verity clings to Sally as a sort of substitute family, but struggles with her insecurities and her envy of Sally's ‘perfect’ existence. She falls madly in love with a married man but, unsurprisingly, their steamy affair is not the solution to Verity's problems; rather, it exacerbates her self-doubt as she plays second fiddle to the wife and children.Ultimately, Verity's life takes an unexpected turn, and she emerges a stronger and more creative woman. Salway wraps her bright, comic writing in bite-sized chunks that make this first novel an easy-reading pleasure.First published in 2004 to considerable critical acclaim – Neil Gaiman called Sarah ‘an astonishingly smart writer’ and Sainsbury’s magazine hailed the book as ‘a Bridget Jones for our times’ – Something Beginning With became a cult classic. By which we mean a book that didn’t sell a huge amount but nearly everyone who did buy it loved it.We are delighted to be able to include Something Beginning With as one of the launch titles for The Library of Lost Books. Sarah has a considerable online following and her debut novel has been unavailable for some time.

Discover a novelist that Neil Gaiman describes as ‘an astonishingly smart writer’.When a chance meeting with a stranger leads to an offer of a room in exchange for telling her stories, Molly jumps at the chance.Slowly she builds a new, eccentric family around herself: Tim, her secretive boyfriend, who just might be a spy; Miranda, the lovelorn hairstylist; Liz, the lusty librarian; Mr. Roberts, landlord and listener; and his French wife, Mrs. Roberts.Much to Molly's surprise, she finds the stories she tells now are her key to creating a completely different life. Suddenly, her future is full of endless possibilities. The trouble is, Molly's not the only one telling tales. And the truth is always stranger than fiction.Sarah Salway's witty, finely-tuned and poignant story of many stories is a uniquely entrancing chronicle.

Chronic ill-health is now recognised as a major public health and social welfare issue, with significant new policy initiatives in recent months.This report presents findings from a detailed new investigation into the experiences of individuals living with long-term ill-health and their families. New in-depth qualitative material is combined with secondary analyses of national datasets to examine the ways in which long-term ill-health impacts upon different dimensions of poverty. The report explores the links between long-term ill-health and three inter-related areas: employment, welfare benefits and social participation and social support. It covers an ethnically diverse sample in order to explore, though not assume, the relevance of ethnicity for the experience and consequences of long-term ill-health and identifies ways in which current UK health and social policy might better serve the needs of people with long-term health conditions.This accessible report is of importance to policy-makers and practitioners working across the public health and social welfare arenas. The findings are of relevance to a wide range of programme areas including: access to employment, welfare benefits, chronic illness self-management (Expert Patients Programmes) and ethnic minority disadvantage. Researchers and students will also find the report of interest.