Why did I choose this book?
I think it chose me. I picked it up from the ‘for sale’ books at Cowdenbeath Library on my way to the dentist. I flipped it over and read the blurb within which it said,
“Sakia ….. a book restorer, devotes her days tending to broken and battered books, dreaming of the people who turned their pages.”
Instantly I knew it was my kind of book.
Did you feel empathy for any particular character?
Sakia has suffered great loss in her life, losing her mother and both grandmothers in a car crash and she was helped through her formative years to heal by her father and two grandfathers, who in an act of self sacrifice came to live together. For me it was my husband, sister and the local community (that phrase again as so important in my life) here in Kinghorn who have been so supportive. Nevertheless, for Sakia was being cocooned in a caring home making it difficult for her to build relationships and love as she grows up? Could she face losing the world which has protected her?
Is there a lasting thought or memory of the book which remains with you?
Yes indeed; the synchronicity of life. I did not know when I picked up the book that it would include a love story set in Bletchley Park as well as one in real time; the former a place in history I’m very familiar with following research into my own novel MURDER, Now and Then. Also, I am so aware of numerous coincidences occurring in my life as an author. Some may think author using this phenomenon makes the story contrived, but in my experience happenings like this are ones I treasure and they make a jolly good yarn with friends!
Diana Jackson 