What are you working on? : novelist Sarah Salway

After a bit of a hiatus, my What Are You Working On? series of interviews returns with an interview with British novelist Sarah Salway, whose new project is a novel about two old duffers who try to get a nurse at their care home interested in the nephew of one of them.

I think what led me to the idea was when my mother was very ill, my father moved with her to a nursing home so they could stay together. However he was very fit and healthy, and really struggled with the life there. So I started writing fragments almost as a way of trying to see if I could find a way he might be able to cope. Then some of the stories he told were very funny, which not many people really imagine. ... I also wanted to write about the regrets some men might have of never putting themselves and their emotions first. George, one of my main characters, has never really let himself love anyone -- I like the fact I can allow him to love his friend, Alfie.