Narrowboat mystery at centre of second novel
AN author who lives on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal has released her second novel.
Sarah Jasmon’s You Never Told Me was published in March, and once again uses the Lancashire waterways as its setting.
Her first novel The Summer of Secrets (Black Swan) came out in 2015 to great acclaim. It told the story of a shy 16-yearold whose life was changed forever when an unconventional family moved into an abandoned cottage on the banks of the local canal, with the Burscough area where she had lived for 10 years very much a feature.
Her second novel, also published by Black Swan, part of Penguin Random House, is now also inspired by Sarah’s surrounding landscape.
It follows Charlie as she goes in search of her mother’s hidden past and, in the process, finds out who she is herself – and inherits a narrowboat.
Her mother is gone, but she has left a mystery behind – why did she buy the canal boat, and where did the money for it come from?
It has been described as a “heart-warming storyline, which doesn’t rest on the heroine meeting a man to enable her to reach her goals”. The relationships Charlie has with other women – her sister and other boat women – are far more significant than her ex-husband, or her brief fling.
Author Sarah has previously lived in a camper van, a static caravan, a flat that burned down and a cellar with no windows; however she has been settled on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for the last 15 years.
She moved on to the boat with her husband, children, dog and cats. However her husband hated it; so he left, and she stayed.
Sarah said she has discovered a community on the canal, finding it to be an immense source of support and guidance.
And her willingness to get her hands dirty – fixing the engine, emptying the toilets – has even earned her a number of marriage proposals!
Her short stories have been published in The People’s Friend, Candis, Paraxis, Word Gumbo and Notes into Letters, and in 2018 she was shortlisted for the Harper’s Bazaar short story competition. She is an associate tutor in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and currently studying for a PhD in Creative Geography.