When the 23 foot aloe finally flowers – will Mr McNab’s secret dealings be exposed? Will Belle gain the scent she desires? Will Elizabeth find her future fortunes in its golden blooms? And there is more we have to endure as we also have far less water now to help nurture our trees – just as the climate is in crisis. The Israelis, who control 85% of our water, regularly cut off our supplies. Yet Israel has built up water reserves for 30 years. Her first book, Truth or Dare, featured in the Sunday Times Top 50 and was nominated for the Saltire Prize. In 2015 Sara was named one of the Saltire Society’s 365 most influential Scottish women, past and present. She sits on the Committee of the Society of Authors in Scotland and is also on the board of the UK-wide writers’ collective ‘26’, taking part in the acclaimed 26 Treasures project in 2010 at the V&A, in 2011 at National Museum of Scotland and in 2012 at the Children’s Museum, Bethnal Green.

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – review – From First The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – review – From First

Despite all this, I want to carry on, in memory of my late father. It is the children and young people I especially feel for. Their future is not safe. It is also affecting them psychologically, with many suffering from mental health issues. There is a high dropout rate among the boys at our secondary school. It is similar in many other nearby villages and towns – with Palestinians either evicted or simply leaving, in despair, to live in other countries. It was also lovely to explore the connections in my home town – so much of the built environment in Edinburgh is still there, though the city boundary used to be at the Water of Leith. I was also surprised at the level of industry along the water– one of Scotland’s biggest distilleries was at Canonmills and I have one character in the book who works there…This is a great question. I suppose historical fiction is an exciting vehicle to explore our own time. You can’t understand where you are or make good decisions about where you’re going if you can’t see where you’ve come from. So it’s that. Good historical fiction allows you to make that connection on a visceral level – it’s a time machine. Thank you that’s very nice of you to say. I’m just starting another novel set slightly later – in the 1840s and mostly in Glasgow. It’s about an early female photographer – a fictional one but she is based on a real-life character. One of the things I’m interested in just now is the differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow and where those differences came from. So far, the research for this book has been a bit of an odyssey! I’m really enjoying it, particularly looking at the female gaze from its inception in photography. Your work always shines a light on women’s stories that history has overlooked. How have these stories shaped your thinking about our shared history? For me the fascination is always in asking the question: where do we come from?’ It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumour of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades. So begins the tale, and – no spoilers – fantastic read awaits. Author Sara Sheridan tells us more. So many things! I learned a lot about the sex trade in the city during the Georgian period, which was legion! And the way the legal system dealt with (mainly female) sex workers. In that there are echoes that reverberate today into the way women are treated by our culture in the process of rape cases. The patriarchy is still at it!

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I look after about 700 olive trees around the valley. But I and others with groves have lost about 70% of them in the past five years. Some were taken by settlers; others have just been made impossible to cultivate. I have been giving talks across the country to tell people how our goods are ethically and environmentally sourced. We are selling through a British company, Zaytoun, which is Arabic for olive. Armed with an enjoyably sharp detective, Harbinder Kaur – the sort of woman who responds to being asked: “Who put you in charge?” with the line: “Let’s assume I am… It’ll make things easier” – Griffiths overlaps perspectives, timelines and narrators, producing a darkly funny, enjoyable mystery.Your novel is set in Enlightenment Edinburgh, a period of great change in the city. What drew you to this setting?

The Fair Botanists - Historical Novel Society

The whole of Edinburgh waits with baited breath for the American aloe plant to flower. The fate of the characters rests on the successful outcome of the plant. Mr McNab up to his knees in debt is relying on the sale of the aloe’s seeds to feed and clothe his family. Miss Brodie whose current ladies bathing oil is a roaring success at the apothecary; is relying on the aloe’s flowers as the secret ingredient to the success of her new love potion. Elizabeth is relying upon the aloe’s blooms to symbolise and herald hope and happiness for her future. Add into the mix the impending arrival of King George III, everyone pulls together to try to make the visit triumphant and perhaps bring fresh, new and much needed investors to the Botanical Gardens.We were so pleased to see you add in your passion for perfume in The Fair Botanists. Can you tell us more about what you love about perfume creation? Charged with a mission by the Empress of Brazil, celebrated writer and the toast of Georgian London, Maria Graham sets off for England with the Brazilian civil war at its height. Newly widowed and a woman travelling alone, the stakes are high and when she accepts roguish smuggler Captain James Henderson’s offer of passage on his ship, she gets more than she bargains for. Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places features an overweight, cat-loving detective who lives on the Norfolk coast. Like so much new crime fiction the setting is as much part of the point as the plot, writes stpauli: So when I created the character of Belle Brodie she was a high-class courtesan but she had the same fascination as I do for smell. Though her interest is in whether she can manipulate people’s behaviour through scent. And yes you can! This tied in with the Georgian fascination for potions – like magic. In fact in 1824 in Edinburgh there was a real-life case of two shop boys who mixed a ‘love potion’ and gave it to a girl. It’s not an uncommon story though looking at that case, it seems more like a ‘rhohypnol’ episode than the grand plan that Belle undertakes. Perfume is a big part of my world so it was genuinely fun writing directly about that – though there are always smells in my novels, this time I got to the nub of the thing!