{"id":44912,"date":"2024-03-05T11:27:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T11:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/?p=44912"},"modified":"2025-09-26T11:39:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:39:40","slug":"meet-the-author-sophie-elmhirst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/lt\/meet-the-author-sophie-elmhirst\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Author: Sophie Elmhirst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; da_disable_devices=&#8221;off|off|off&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; da_is_popup=&#8221;off&#8221; da_exit_intent=&#8221;off&#8221; da_has_close=&#8221;on&#8221; da_alt_close=&#8221;off&#8221; da_dark_close=&#8221;off&#8221; da_not_modal=&#8221;on&#8221; da_is_singular=&#8221;off&#8221; da_with_loader=&#8221;off&#8221; da_has_shadow=&#8221;on&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;19px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.3em&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>5 March 2024<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;19px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.3em&#8221; link_font_size=&#8221;19px&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>Sophie Elmhirst is an award winning journalist. She writes regularly for the Guardian Long Read and the Economist&#8217;s 1843 magazine, among others. In 2020, she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year, and a Foreign Press Award for Finance and Economics Story of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>Her first book, <a href=\"https:\/\/suffolk.spydus.co.uk\/cgi-bin\/spydus.exe\/ENQ\/WPAC\/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&amp;BRN=3445917\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Maurice and Maralyn<\/em><\/a>, will be published by Chatto and Windus in February 2024. You can find <em>Maurice and Maralyn<\/em> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/borrow\/our-catalogue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Suffolk Community Libraries catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;19px&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;1.3em&#8221; link_font_size=&#8221;19px&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who were your influences as you were growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I read a lot as a kid &#8211; Roald Dahl, Joan Aiken, Shirley Hughes, Nina Bawden, Jill Murphy, Beverley Cleary and The Beano were all pretty key. They still are, as I have kids now. But God I loved TV, and then &#8211; once I was allowed to go to the video shop by myself &#8211; movies. I realise this makes me sound very old. But honestly, a combination of early &#8217;90s films like Sister Act and Philadelphia and TV shows like My So-Called Life and The Wonder Years basically formed my early adolescent brain.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>We know you as an award winning journalist. How did you get into that line of work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I started out working on magazines: Prospect, then a short-lived public sector magazine at the Guardian, then the New Statesman. All of them offered amazing experience &#8211; I worked as an editorial assistant, fact-checking, then gradually began editing pieces myself but I always wanted to write and managed to find a few opportunities along the way, especially at the New Statesman. It&#8217;s the benefit of working somewhere small &#8211; you can wangle your way into the pages more often.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, I&#8217;d built up enough work and contacts to take the plunge and go freelance when I had my first baby. Freelancing can feel precarious, but I&#8217;ve been lucky in having the support of great editors at places like the Guardian Long Read, Harper&#8217;s Bazaar, The Gentlewoman and the Economist&#8217;s 1843 Magazine, who have all given me regular work.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you tell us a little about your new book <a href=\"https:\/\/suffolk.spydus.co.uk\/cgi-bin\/spydus.exe\/ENQ\/WPAC\/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&amp;BRN=3445917\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Maurice and Maralyn<\/strong><\/em><\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a true story &#8211; a crazy story &#8211; of a young married couple called Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who in 1972 decided to sail around the world on their way to a new life in New Zealand. Halfway there, they were hit by a sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Their boat sank and they were cast adrift on a tiny inflatable life raft and dinghy for nearly four months before they were rescued. The book charts that experience but also what came next; a strange bout of international fame followed by a return to anonymity. I hope it&#8217;s also about the nature of marriage, different forms of isolation and what happens when we grow old as much as it is about the extremity of their experience.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>As two people who never sought celebrity, I&#8217;m guessing that it was not an easy book to research?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re right &#8211; they disappeared from view for a long time &#8211; but thankfully they left behind a great store of material. They wrote four books, for starters, and were interviewed a lot after they were rescued. I had a brilliant archive researcher who helped me find old TV interviews and newspaper stories, and I also spoke to a number of surviving family and friends about them. Their friend Colin Foskett &#8211; who went on another long sailing voyage with them after their catastrophe &#8211; was particularly helpful and generous with his memories.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did writing the book differ from your regular journalistic assignments?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh it was completely different &#8211; mostly because I&#8217;m used to writing about the living. I love journalism for the chance it gives you to watch people and ask them anything you like. Obviously I couldn&#8217;t do that here and it was strange trying to conjure Maurice and Maralyn back to life on the page, based on all this amassed evidence. I kept wishing I could talk to them, and I&#8217;d watch these fragments of television interviews over and over again, just to pretend I was in their company.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I&#8217;m used to writing stories that are more like a slice of someone&#8217;s life, or a particular angle on a world or industry. You dip in and out of a subject, and capture it in a particular moment in time. With Maurice and Maralyn, I really wanted to do something that felt a little more total &#8211; to try and do justice to their whole lives, or as many dimensions of their lives as possible.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The story of Maurice and Maralyn is a universal one. It would make a wonderful film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ha, yes, maybe. Possibly a nightmare to make though, given that so much of it takes place on water. But I love the idea of them being brought to life in some way &#8211; and have endless ideas of who could play them&#8230; A friend of mine suggested Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, which made me laugh.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Keeping on going with journalism, which is very much the day job, and one I love. It&#8217;s wonderful returning to the faster pace of journalism and the chance to briefly plunge into a world, after spending years on a book. But, without doubt, I&#8217;d love to write another book&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>One book, piece of art or music that everyone should experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/suffolk.spydus.co.uk\/cgi-bin\/spydus.exe\/ENQ\/WPAC\/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&amp;BRN=352896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Gilead<\/em><\/a> by Marilynne Robinson. It contains everything!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The best piece of advice you were ever given?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just keep going.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Award-winning journalist and author Sophie Elmhirst talks to us about her debut book &#8216;Maurice and Maralyn&#8217; and the true story behind the book about a couple who were stranded in a dinghy for nearly four months.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":44913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meet-the-author"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meet the Author: Sophie Elmhirst - Suffolk Community Libraries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Award-winning journalist and author Sophie Elmhirst talks to us about her debut book &#039;Maurice and Maralyn&#039; and the true story behind the book about a couple who were stranded in a dinghy for nearly four months.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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