Skip to main content
Life is a bit weird
Andy Hedgecock talks to SARAH SCHOFIELD about her fiction collection, Safely Gathered In
Sarah Schofield

SARAH SCHOFIELD’S subtle and compelling fiction comes in a range of styles. Her first collection, Safely Gathered In, includes traditional, emotionally powerful tales (Under the Foil; Shake Me and I Rattle), and work that is detached, satirical and formally experimental (Nostalgia4Beginners; Safely Gathered In). I ask what aspects of a story influence her approach: does theme determine form, or does she simply crave variety?

“The writer David Constantine said, ‘I reinvent the genre every time […] I can’t see how the way I went about it last time will help me this time.’ I wholeheartedly agree with this.

“Often, I query whether I will be able to write another story. Perhaps it’s all just been a bit of a fluke. More recently, with very young children in the picture, approaching the form differently has been the shake-up I needed – I wrote the early drafts of the title story quickly in half-hour stints in a local café, whenever my mum had a bit of time to spare on her day off or the baby was sleeping. Typing whilst breastfeeding also works and buys you a bit more time, except typing one-handed means you have to add certain punctuation in afterwards (question marks are tricky).

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Book Review / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
Daniel Lind-Ramos, Ensamblajes, Nottingham Contemporary
Exhibition review / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Culture / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
Two books and a film that examine cultural excavation and the impact of place on behaviour
Lenin in Smolny, by Isaac Brodsky, 1930 (detail)
Short Fiction / 6 September 2024
6 September 2024
ANDY HEDGECOCK invites readers to contribute short fiction to our arts pages, offers some guidance and picks a few favourites
Similar stories
American flags representing the 200,000 dead from COVID-19 p
Book Review / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
SARAH TROTT explores short fictional slices of life in the American midwest from a middle-aged and mostly female perspective
REMARKABLE: The Danish writer Karen Blixen as a recipient of
International Women's Day 2025 / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
With most of recorded history dominated by the voices of men, LYNNE WALSH encourages sisters to read the memoirs of women – and to write their own too
MAKING THE BEST OF REJECTION: Rupert Everett at Munich Filmf
Books / 25 February 2025
25 February 2025
MATTHEW HAWKINS sees past the purple prose to themes of rejection and ageing in the autobiographical fiction of Rupert Everett
Lenin in Smolny, by Isaac Brodsky, 1930 (detail)
Short Fiction / 6 September 2024
6 September 2024
ANDY HEDGECOCK invites readers to contribute short fiction to our arts pages, offers some guidance and picks a few favourites