From rat-infested basement to Washington Heat to the gorillas of Rwanda

Short Story Writer

Sally Emerson’s acclaimed new short stories, Perfect, Stories of the Impossible are published by Quadrant. In the stories everything seems ordinary enough until something extraordinary begins to happen. She likes the playfulness of short stories; the way they grab and tease the reader in such a short space. The TLS called them seven modern fairy tales with consistently compelling plotlines conjuring up ‘in concise, flowing and polished prose, the pains and passions of love, whether waning or blooming. Love is the common theme here - sometimes found, sometimes lost, ever attendant.’

Novelist

All six of Sally Emerson's award-winning novels were reissued as Rediscovered Classics.

The two dark love stories bestsellers Fire Child and Heat came first, then Second Sight and the bestselling Separation about the power of children, published in the USA as Hush Little Baby. 

Helen Dunmore commented, 'Welcome back to these dark, gripping and timeless novels.' Kate Saunders wrote that 'It is such a pleasure to see Sally Emerson's extraordinary and original novels introduced to a new generation.'

Broken Bodies, a 'clever mixture of thriller and passionate love story' with the story of Elgin's extraordinary wife and the Elgin marbles as the backdrop, and the chilling Listeners complete the set of six.

Travel Writer

Since 2003 she has been travelling all over the world for The Sunday Times, writing about the adventures of travel - to the Galapagos, to the gorillas of Rwanda, to the dead craters of Tanzania, and has won various awards for her work.

Anthologist    

Emerson’s three recent anthologies of great poetry and some prose are about the three great subjects, birth, love and death: New Life, Be Mine and In Loving Memory.

Editor and journalist

Emerson was editor of the literary magazine Books and Bookmen. She began her career there as an editorial assistant in a rat-infested basement in London’s Victoria Street. At Oxford she edited Isis and continued her reviewing work and wrote for The Times. She won prizes including a Catherine Pakenham Award, the Vogue Talent Contest and the Radio Times Young Journalist of the Year. After university she was assistant editor of Plays and Players then editor of Books and Bookmen publishing early journalism by such future greats as Ian Hislop and Sebastian Faulks, while writing her first novel Second Sight. 

After the success of Second Sight she mostly concentrated on novels and screenplays. She has also written poetry which have appeared in various anthologies, including Richard Adams’s Occasional Poets and Daisy Goodwin’s Poems to keep you Sane.

Private Life

Daughter of a doctor and English teacher (who had worked in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park) who met at Cambridge, Sally Emerson lives in London.