Sarah Crabtree

Sarah Crabtree has been writing prize-winning short stories for over thirty years. Her work has featured globally in the Penguin Random House Writers’ Academy, numerous magazines and other publications.

She is the author of "The Elfin Stone and other stories", a finalist in the Eyelands International Book Awards 2019 and "The Ghost House Collection", 22 eerie tales reflecting a world turned upside down, perfect for the 2020s.

Sarah has also published two children's picture books, "The Yellow Dinosaur and the Blue Lagoon" and "The Lion and the Magic Storyteller".

Q: What is the first book you remember reading, or being read to as a child?

A: I remember an aunt passing on a copy of Grimm’s fairy tales and I was petrified yet fascinated also. I also loved Oscar Wilde's children's stories, particularly The Selfish Giant, which I found a very moving tale. Readers of my book "The Lion and the Magic Storyteller" may recognise a character loosely based on Oscar!

Q: Do you have a favourite quote?

A: My grandmother used to say that if at first you don’t succeed then try, try again.

Q: Is there a book that you keep going back to and how many times have you read it?

A: You mean apart from the dictionary?! I love Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow. I must have read it three times over the past twenty years, and yet I still discover something new in it.

Q: Who is your person of inspiration?

A: Many people have inspired me. However, it was my grandmother who passed on a love for reading, and I think consequently my desire to write.