The Fair Botanists: Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches?

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Doha Asous is an olive farmer from a village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. She is in Britain for Fairtrade Fortnight to talk about agriculture in Palestine and to promote local produce – olives and their oil, as well as other typical foods, such as dates. Here she describes life in her village during the recent violence between Palestinian locals and Jewish settlers. So many things! I learned a lot about the sex trade in the city during the Georgian period, which was legion! And the way the legal system dealt with (mainly female) sex workers. In that there are echoes that reverberate today into the way women are treated by our culture in the process of rape cases. The patriarchy is still at it!

Sara Sheridan | Jenny Brown Associates

When the 23 foot aloe finally flowers – will Mr McNab’s secret dealings be exposed? Will Belle gain the scent she desires? Will Elizabeth find her future fortunes in its golden blooms? Your novel is set in Enlightenment Edinburgh, a period of great change in the city. What drew you to this setting? For me the fascination is always in asking the question: where do we come from?’ It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumour of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades. So begins the tale, and – no spoilers – fantastic read awaits. Author Sara Sheridan tells us more.Her first book, Truth or Dare, featured in the Sunday Times Top 50 and was nominated for the Saltire Prize. In 2015 Sara was named one of the Saltire Society’s 365 most influential Scottish women, past and present. She sits on the Committee of the Society of Authors in Scotland and is also on the board of the UK-wide writers’ collective ‘26’, taking part in the acclaimed 26 Treasures project in 2010 at the V&A, in 2011 at National Museum of Scotland and in 2012 at the Children’s Museum, Bethnal Green. Brighton,1957: Mirabelle Bevan can’t resist a cry for help, be it the little girl at a seaside sanatorium who is getting bullied or the strange behaviour of Uma, the Indian nurse who is looking after her. Intrigued she soon finds herself drawn into a spider’s web of connections between an upmarket brothel, local priest Father Grogan, a man’s body washed up on Brighton beach and a missing nursing sister. Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places features an overweight, cat-loving detective who lives on the Norfolk coast. Like so much new crime fiction the setting is as much part of the point as the plot, writes stpauli: Born in Edinburgh and educated at Trinity College Dublin, Sara Sheridan is most famous for her two series of historical novels: one, the Mirabelle Bevan novels, noir mysteries set in 1950s Brighton, and the other exploring on real lives of late Victorian adventurers.

The Guardian ‘They ransack our village for sport’: one - The Guardian

Are there other women from Enlightenment Edinburgh that you’d like to explore in fiction? Or you’d like to see other writers or film makers portray? This is what we fear. Look, I don’t hate Israel, and want a two-state solution. And I certainly do not hate Israelis or Jews. It is the settlers who are the problem – uncontrolled, with the Israeli army, supposedly there to protect us, usually turning a blind eye. The first person narrative that Lee espoused has become so ubiquitous that the ever-perceptive stpauli was surprised to find a crime debut told through a third person, present tense narrative. Expecting to be irritated by it, she found herself pleasantly surprised to the extent of recommending it as a good holiday read. Chapters end with lines such as: “Clare… I’ve got some terrible news.” Graveyards loom through windows. Horrified at what’s going on, Clare reveals to a friend: “I keep thinking I’m in a book.” “You always think that,” she is told with a sniff. The only chance he has to save himself and prove worthy of Maria is to unmask the gang and break free from their clutches, but will it be enough? On Starlit Seas is a breathless tale of adventure, love and chocolate set at the height of the British Empire.It was also lovely to explore the connections in my home town – so much of the built environment in Edinburgh is still there, though the city boundary used to be at the Water of Leith. I was also surprised at the level of industry along the water– one of Scotland’s biggest distilleries was at Canonmills and I have one character in the book who works there… Thank you that’s very nice of you to say. I’m just starting another novel set slightly later – in the 1840s and mostly in Glasgow. It’s about an early female photographer – a fictional one but she is based on a real-life character. One of the things I’m interested in just now is the differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow and where those differences came from. So far, the research for this book has been a bit of an odyssey! I’m really enjoying it, particularly looking at the female gaze from its inception in photography. Your work always shines a light on women’s stories that history has overlooked. How have these stories shaped your thinking about our shared history? I have been giving talks across the country to tell people how our goods are ethically and environmentally sourced. We are selling through a British company, Zaytoun, which is Arabic for olive. Congratulations on the publication of The Fair Botanists. Could you tell us a little more on what you wanted to explore in writing this story?