Rj Jefferson asked Sarah Stuart:

An interesting hook to the Tudors. They say 'write what you know'. Given your role in working back stage, how much of the story was 'written' for you by just observing what goes on between the actors? Best regards, Jefferson.

Sarah Stuart I’m glad you liked the Tudor thread. It’s a period of history that’s always interested me and it was the strange gap between births, given James IV’s desire for a living heir, that opened the way to giving his queen a fictional “secret life”.

I can’t say too much about the stage without marking this as “a spoiler” for people who have yet to read Dangerous Liaisons. Observing actors obviously played a part in getting the setting right, but there is more to it than that. There are technical and business sides to staging musicals and I needed to know more than I actually used in the novel to be sure the detail I did use was accurate.

flag