Writing’s very much a marathon, not a sprint. And until I know that a novel is not just viable, but bought, and effectively finished, I can’t quite talk about it. It’s partly superstition; partly self-doubt; partly the fear that someone might nick youridea.

So I’m hugely excited - and relieved - to be able to announce that I’ve written a new political thriller/courtroom drama, and that Reputation will be published by my existing publishers S&S in the UK in March, and the US in July next year.

Not only that but we have a cover, at least for the UK edition. I absolutely love it - and would love to know what you think?

So what’s it about? Judgement, misogyny, the toxicity of social media, the difficulty of navigating your way through life, as a woman, either as a public figure, or as a teenager facing social-media loving frenemies. There’s a courtroom drama at the heart of it; tabloid journalists; suspicion among MPs. Specifically it focusses on Emma Webster, MP, who is implicated in the death of a tabloid journalist. How far will she go to protect her reputation?

And here’s the blurb:

Emma Webster is a high-profile MP. Impassioned and empathetic, she wants to make a positive difference but faces threats and trolling as she tries to work in the public eye.

When she launches a campaign to protect women from the effects of online bullying, the abuse steps up. And when her teenage daughter’s character is called into question, Emma learns how far she will go to protect both their reputations. 

But still: how did she come to be standing trial for murder? She only lied once - didn’t she?

The news was announced in The Bookseller today, and here’s what my editor, publishing director Clare Hey, had to say about it: "Sarah writes such thought-provoking, intelligent and compelling novels and has her finger firmly on the pulse of what matters to women. She is a master at portraying powerful women in impossible situations and Reputation is a stunning novel showing her at the heights of her powers. I am delighted we are bringing this to readers, along with our colleagues at Atria."

Here’s my agent, Lizzy Kremer, who has been incisive in her notes, and wonderful in brokering the deals. "Sarah tackles another burning hot issue for women and girls in this thrilling and moving novel: why do so many women still have to fight to protect their reputations in the 21st century? In Emma she has found a brilliant and flawed heroine who encapsulates the fears and frustrations of many of us."

I’ve just discovered that you can preorder it - which makes it feel very, very real! So here’s a link for Waterstone’s and Amazon. End of hard sell (for the moment!)

I loved writing this novel, despite the initial stymying months of the first lockdown, and I’m proud of it. I do hope you enjoy.

Little Disasters is published in paperback in a couple of days - and I’m absolutely delighted that this coincides with it being picked by Waterstone’s as their Thriller of the Month for March. It feels like such an accolade to have it chosen, tempered only by the fact that, of course, no bookshops are currently open. But of course you can buy it online….

As well as Waterstone’s, Little Disasters will also be available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and WH Smith’s - as well as all good independent bookshops via Bookshop.org.

And there’s some other excellent news. While the filming of Anatomy of a Scandal continues - see coverage of Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend here and here, and Michelle Dockery here - Little Disasters has just been optioned by Rough Cut Productions, headed by The Office’s Ash Atalla, to be a “high-end drama series.” Here’s the full Deadline story which describes me as “hot property” - something that has never happened before. The Rough Cut team are very energised and are currently interviewing screen writers. I’ll be an executive producer, as I have been for Anatomy. I’ve absolutely loved seeing Kate, James and Sophie come to life in a different medium, and I’d love it if Jess, Liz, Ed, Mel and Charlotte had the same opportunity. In the meantime, I do hope you enjoy their company - or at least are intrigued, moved and perhaps appalled by them, if you buy the book.

Any idea what day it is? Lockdown 3, with its challenging combination of homeschooling, bleak weather and fears about highly-transmissible new covid variants, means I’ve been opting out of social media and have started to lose track of the dates.

So it’s come as a bit of a surprise to discover that the paperback of Little Disasters is out in three and a half weeks - on March 4!

The hardback was published on April 2, around 10 days after bookshops closed in the first lockdown, and the paperback will be published during another lockdown, with physical bookshops again all shut. At this point I want to paraphrase Oscar Wilde - but the bad luck of this coincidence is a first world problem (as I keep telling my kids: the main thing is we’re all well; no mean feat given their dad’s a hospital doctor) and Iuckily books are still for sale in supermarkets and from bookshops online.

What’s more, my fabulous team at S&S have gone above and beyond in producing a fresh new cover for the paperback which I think is suitably thriller-y. It keeps the black and yellow of the HB original and gives it a new twist. I’m also very grateful for the quotes. “Taut, clever, compelling” from The Girl on the Train’s Paula Hawkins? “Impossible-to-look-away” from the Observer? I’m quite stunned by these and the pages of quotes inside.

I’m also feeling very lucky in that it will be for sale in Waterstones, WH Smiths, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda. You can also find it online at independent bookstores, via Bookshop.org. Preorders really help authors and I’d be incredibly grateful if you’d consider ordering from these highlighted links.

Little Disasters is about the darkest reaches of motherhood, the judgements women make about each other, and the redemptive power of friendship. Though it’s more domestic than Anatomy of a Scandal, it also centres on a professional woman who has to make a judgment that will have a devastating impact on others, and has a paediatrician, rather than a barrister, at its heart.

I’d love you to read it but, if you’re unsure, you can read the first three chapters here or you can listen to an audiobook extract here. There are even some book club questions here. Thank you for reading to the end of this hard sell! The fact that people are still reading, in the current climate, is immensely heartening.

Sometimes good things come all at once. So it is with huge delight that I can announce that Richard and Judy have chosen Anatomy of a Scandal as one of their 12 best books in a decade of running their book club. (US readers: think of Oprah or Reese.)

Being picked for the book club two years ago was a massive highpoint of my writing career, and though I think Richard is being overgenerous in proclaiming the 12 books they’ve chosen out of 240 as “the best books written in the US and UK in the last decade” it is lovely to know that they still hold it in such high esteem. I’m thrilled that Anatomy’s been given a new cover and that the essay I wrote on its inspiration - including a reference to our now prime minister - and the questions they posed me are still in the back of it. Even better, I’ll be recording a podcast with Lisa Jewell, whose The Family Upstairs has also been chosen, and a celebrity next week. I’ve already played the podcast with Clare Mackintosh and Alex Michaelides, whose I Let You Go and The Silent Patient have been picked, and found it so inspiring. You can listen to the podcast here, and subscribe to it here. David Nicholls and Jessie Burton will be recording ahead of us and I can guarantee they will be fascinating.

You can buy this special edition, and any of the other dozen bestsellers they’ve picked on a buy one get one half price basis, here.

Meanwhile, in the US the e-book of Anatomy of a Scandal is $1.99 for a very short while, and you can buy it here. E-books are rarely priced this low in the US so it’s a good chance to snap it up before it hits our screens….

Because have you noticed that perfect little Netflix burst? It’s the first time we’ve used it on any edition and it really is happening! Filming started just over a week ago and, finger’s tightly crossed because filming in a pandemic is logistically complex, it’s full steam ahead…

I haven’t been on set yet - there are tough covid protocols and I’ve been finishing my fifth novel - so I’ve been devouring these pictures of Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller filming it, somewhat ironically printed by the tabloid that features at the start of the novel, the Daily Mail. The ones of them filming outside the Old Bailey, surrounded by paparazzi, feel utterly surreal since I started researching the novel by watching a sexual offences trial in court 5 in January 2016.

At around that time I would have just finished watching Rupert Friend in Homeland (season five, the Berlin series, would just have completed with the most amazing, and terrifying, narrative arc for Quinn). Now he’s been transformed into my charismatic government minister, James. I’m in awe of what the costume designer, and hair and make-up, have achieved. Would love to know what you think?