I was sometimes a little spacey because I was so deep in the book, but she never complained.Ī. Saturdays we'd meet friends and have a wonderful old-fashioned English currant bread called 'lardy cake' for tea. She'd come down most week-ends from London and we'd meet on Friday nights at a local pub which cooked an excellent curry. Then my cousin Diana, the owner of the cottage, which had a thatched roof and a chalk-walled garden, was a great support. One especially, John Chandler, who'd written a wonderful book on the city, became a friend. Firstly, the local historians who helped me with the huge research required were encouraging. So it was going clean against the perceived market which, if you want to succeed, is usually what you should do.Ī. The wisdom at that time was that historical fiction didn't sell, and nor did long books. Even those publishing friends I consulted were dubious. But I was told afterwards that there had been general derision. What did your former colleagues think of your move?Ī. I knew I could hold out financially for a while. Some savings, a small legacy from a relation and a very kind cousin who had a cottage in the area which she let me house-sit. I knew I'd have to give myself to the book completely, full time, for as long as it took.Ī. James Michener led the way and I owe him a huge debt. I'd read and liked several of his books, especially Chesapeake, which has a lyrical quality. James Michener invented this genre, an act of literary genius, really. This was when Michener became the model, I imagine.Ī. The book kept growing in my mind until I couldn't see any other way to do it. The more I thought about the place and its history, the more the subject seemed to demand it. You had a subject, but Sarum is a novel covering ten thousand years, from the Ice Age to the present day. Then it hit me: of course, that's it, the subject has to be Sarum. I was just standing there, staring at the painting. And as I was staring at the painting, the whole of my early childhood came back to me with a great rush, the magical presence of the place, of Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge.

It has a wonderful painting by Constable of Salisbury Cathedral, seen across a meadowland.

The idea of Sarum came to me quite suddenly one day in New York, in the Frick Museum. For about three months I thought about several projects, but none seemed right. You decided to write Sarum straight away?Ī.

Sarum rutherford