Sarah Vaughan's Blog

Little Disasters, based on my psychological thriller about the darkest reaches of motherhood, drops on Paramount+ today and I could not be more thrilled.

Starring Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, Troy) as Jess, and Jo Joyner (The Wives, Stay Close, Shakespeare & Hathaway) as Liz, it feels true to my 2020 novel and yet distinct from it. A storyline set in the Eighties has been stripped away and each of the four mothers has a more fully realised narrative. And as for the ending? Well, you’ll just have to watch to see…

One of the reasons I feel so proud of it is because, like Anatomy of a Scandal, Little Disasters feels so personal: based on a novel inspired by my own experience after having my second baby, although obviously exaggerated massively since I needed to ratchet up the jeopardy. It’s a very female-led show, with four very different women divided by the moral dilemma at its heart. A six-part series about motherhood and judgment, and more specifically maternal mental health, shouldn’t feel extraordinary – and yet, in an environment in which the pandemic and writers’ strikes have had a massive impact on the number of TV shows being made, it very much does. 

Little Disasters focuses on a decades-long friendship between Jess, Liz, Mel and Charlotte: four mothers who meet at an antenatal class and remain in one another’s lives, despite having little in common but their due dates. But when seemingly perfect Jess turns up at an A&E department on Friday night with a baby with a bang to the back of her head and a story that doesn’t add up, those friendships are strained. Liz is the paediatric registrar on call and her decision to bring in social services and the police sets in motion a chain of events that fractures and nearly destroys not just Jess’s family but the entire friendship group.

I’m so grateful to the independent production company Roughcut TV for championing this psychological drama with a mystery at its heart, not least the women driving it, producers Marianna Abbotts and Myf Hopkins and director Eva Sigurdardottir; the screenwriters, Ruth Fowler and Amanda Duke; and the actors, Diane Kruger, Jo Joyner, Emily Taaffe (War and Peace), who plays Mel, and Shelley Conn, Charlotte (Alex Rider, Bridgerton). And then there are the husbands: JJ Feild (Ed), Ben Bailey-Smith (Nick), Stephen Campbell Moore (Rob), and Patrick Baladi (Andrew), not to mention the various Betseys (a newborn, a two-week old, and a ten-month-old), and seven other children. Special mention must go to eight-year-old Frankie (Jax James.)

As I write this, the day before transmission, I’m excited and just a little nervous. The screening of the first episode, at the Charlotte St hotel last week, was met with a superb response: both laughter at moments of black humour and gasps at the suspense, including from my editor, who knows the story but was still taken by surprise. The previews in the weekend’s press have been excellent, with the Times praising Kruger’s performance as “superb”, and the Telegraph saying the same of Joyner in this “thorny six-part drama” that’s being compared to Made Up Stories’ superb Big Little Lies, and variously described as “addictive”, “intriguing”, and something that “grips”.

“This is a powerhouse cast,” declaimed the Sunday Times. “Pulls you in with the tensions of the opening then keeps you there with the promise of secrets to be revealed,” added the Daily Mail, which chose it as its streamer pick of the week. “Addictive,” said the Mail on Sunday”. “An intriguing premise with a great cast”, according to Heat, which dubbed it “unmissable”; “Gripping from the off with great performances and revelations that will keep you guessing”, TV Times; “well-structured and acted”, Radio Times. Pick of the Day for the Observer, and a pick for the i.

There’s been extensive press, including a cover for Diane Kruger and 10-page fashion feature in Grazia; appearances on BBC 1’s The One Show and ITV’s Good Morning Britain; the Sunday Times culture, and coming up, a piece I’ve written for The Times.

And the stars have engaged with it, too, not only bonding on set in Budapest (it was shot there for seven weeks and a further eight back in south-west London) but bringing their own experience of parenting to their roles. 

As Diane Kruger has said, while promoting it, “Women put a lot of pressure on themselves and can be their own harshest critics. Whether it's breastfeeding – how long do you do it for? What if you can’? is it affecting my kids? – or the judgement from other mothers on how you are raising your children, it can all be very intense. So, I think the more we tell stories that show the struggles people go through, the better.

“When this script was presented to me, I felt very strongly I had to do it,” Jo Joyner added. “These topics are particularly important, and I really feel we’ve done them justice.”

Watch Little Disasters

The anticipation for the release of Anatomy of a Scandal has just intensified with the Netflix release of the trailer for the show.

To the dark strains of an Elephant Music mixed Heads May Roll, it builds to a startling climax of James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend) screaming his denial of rape, and features hints of Oxford debauchery as well as political posturing and the painful implosion of a marriage.

I think it’s utterly brilliant - and, three days in, it’s already had almost half a million views.

Privilege is about to be put on trial, it proclaims - while the poster for the show puns: “Not everyone is entitled to the truth.”

The theme of entitlement - which I, and the director SJ Clarkson, have been adamant is at the heart of the story - was flagged up by Sienna Miller at a Netflix event to showcase the streamer’s forthcoming highlights.

In quotes picked up by the Daily Telegraph, she said: “It deals with privilege in a way that we are seeing unravel daily in our Government. It really is very close to the bone. It’s art imitating life. It’s exciting. We do live in a country that’s not really a meritocracy a lot of the time; where if you had access to education of a certain standard and calibre, and go through the motions, you have aspirations of being in government. And we’re seeing it - they [members of the Government] are all friends.

“I mean, make up your own minds. Watch it and then read the newspapers and see what you think.”

She also spoke about how compulsive she found the script, and alluded to her experience of extreme media attention when her then partner Jude Law admitted to having an affair with his children’s nanny. “I got sent the script and all six episodes came through, which can be really overwhelming. I read the first one, then I couldn’t stop reading all of them. It felt instantly like something I’d want to make and something that people would really want to watch.

“I was excited to play somebody who deals with not dissimilar things that I very publicly dealt with and who responds in different ways.

“What would a [person’s] response be to some terrible behaviour? It felt meta and weird and uncomfortable.”

As pre-publication plans go, getting covid less than a fortnight until a book comes out is far from ideal - so please excuse the brevity of this post, and the blurriness of the above picture, snatched from a belated book unboxing video. With three days to go, I am playing bad catch-up here…

But I wanted to list the various events - many online but some which will be happening in real life - to celebrate my fifth novel, and third thriller, Reputation.

First, though is a link to a Guardian feature I did on Reputation, Anatomy of a Scandal and the zeitgeisty nature of my thrillers. I took voluntary redundancy from that paper 13 years ago, so it felt wonderful to be back in its pages - even if I wasn’t writing the story. (And that was hard! Never interview a journalist seems to be the consensus, and I can see why.)

I’ve also chatted to Tatler and Harper’s Bazaar, to Radio Leeds, and - tonight - to Times Radio; to the Sunday Session in New Zealand, and the Australian Sisters in Crime podcast. (I’m assured I’m not incoherent in that one, but I’m bright red as I had a fever, so please excuse that!) I’ve just recorded a podcast for Blood Brothers, to come on pub day, and there are several further podcasts, including Book Off! and In Suspense Podcast lined up.

But here are the events, with links attached.

Reading Party Event on March 2, 7pm. A read along to celebrate publication eve of Reputation. Tickets from £2.

Griffin Books - digital launch of Reputation. I did an event for Anatomy of a Scandal 3 years ago at this Penarth bookshop and am delighted to be talking to Mel virtually here.

Suffolk Libraries on March 7, 7pm. Free to support Suffolk Libraries Day.

Leeds library on March 10, 6pm, as part of the British Library’s Breaking the News exhibition.

Warwickshire libraries event - Tuesday 22 March, 7.30pm. Free. I did an event with Costa novel winner Claire Fuller in December with these organisers and over 400 people attended online.

Crawley Wordfest: Bar at the Noir - Wednesday 23rd, 7pm. Free.

Heffers, Cambridge, with Kate Rhodes. £7 entry including soft drinks and fizz.

Plus various zoom events for the Women in Law bookclub, among others, and a super exciting real-life literary festival event I’ll be sharing as soon as I can. Hope to see some of you virtually, if not in person.

It’s just 3 weeks until Reputation, my political thriller/courtroom drama, is published and from having had too little news to share, I suddenly have rather a lot of it. Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement of the Anatomy of a Scandal release date and photos, comes the news that the dream team behind this adaptation hope to turn Reputation into a TV series, too.

Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Liza Chasin’s 3dot productions have “optioned” my fifth novel in what Deadline, the Hollywood news site, has described as our “reteaming.” Two Hollywood studios, Endeavor Content and Anonymous Content, are signed up and I’ll executive produce alongside Bruna and Liza and Made Up Stories’ Steve Hutensky and 3dot’s Margaret Chernin, too. An “option” doesn’t mean something will definitely be produced – the chances of that happening are always very slim – but, given the terrific job they’ve done with Anatomy, it’s hard not to be hugely optimistic and excited about this news.

Reputation is about a Labour MP who finds herself accused of murder when a tabloid journalist with whom she’s been entangled is found dead in her home. But it’s really about misogyny and the pressures women face – in person and on social media – as they navigate their way through public life. 

 I wrote it while giving notes on various drafts of the scripts for Anatomy of a Scandal, and feel the new thriller benefitted enormously as a result. So I’m completely thrilled that Bruna and Liza loved it, too. As they put it: “Sarah has crafted a gripping, addictive and timely political thriller that explores the pressure put on women in positions of power. We fell in love with the characters and world and are delighted to be teaming up again with Sarah to bring her masterful new book to life.”

Phew!

With news of a TV option, perhaps it’s fitting to share this terrific trailer, created by S&S, my publishers:

You can preorder signed copies from Waterstone’s via this link, or of course online or from your local independent bookshop, and I’d be incredibly grateful if you wanted to do so. Or – if you’re in the Whitley Bay area on Saturday – I will be talking about it, live, for the very first time. The first Bay Tales live show at the Whitley Bay playhouse has a few tickets left, here. It will be my first event for two years so I’m both a little anxious, and excited to be back, talking to readers about plots, twists and why I write.  If you’re in the area, I’ll be chatting with fellow S&S thriller writers Louise Candlish, Russ Thomas and newcomer Kate Ruby, and would love to see you.

Well - the news is out. I can finally spill the biggest secret of my publishing career and reveal that Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal will drop on 15th April 2022, (Good Friday or the start of Passover.)

The six-part series could not be more deliciously timed, as the themes of entitlement and rule-breaking unfurl here in the UK, at the heart of government.

And the press have been delighting in the parallels between real life and what Harper’s dubbed your “next big Netflix binge”.

“Could there be a more perfect series for the current political climate of distrust, scandal and intrigue?” asks Tatler, before pointing out that “Westminster scandals are de rigeur for the 2020s”.

Glamour magazine adds: “The show is set to give us all the gritty British political drama we could hope for, since it’s set in Westminster and explores the skeletons of a UK MP and the influence of power and privilege (sound familiar?)”

Netflix also released seven stills of the leads, including the above showing Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend transformed into a golden couple. Bizarrely, Squarespace tells me the images are too large to upload here so while I try to sort this out may I direct you to Netflix’s story here. The images include Old Etonian and Oxford-educated Tory politician James Whitehouse in the dock, played by Rupert Friend above, and my favourite ever character, Kate Woodcroft, brilliantly portrayed by Michelle Dockery. There’s also a first glimpse of Angela Regan, James’s defence lawyer, played with the utmost authority by Josette Simon; and of Olivia Lytton, the parliamentary aide with whom he has an affair, played by Naomi Scott.

Meanwhile, David E. Kelley and Melissa James Gibson kindly raved about their experience of writing the scripts. “Sex. Power. Privilege. Based on Sarah's addictive book, the show tackles entitlement, truth and the boundaries of consent. It's been a joy to partner with Netflix on this and see SJ bring it to such a rich and nuanced life.’

And Sienna Miller said she loved my writing! "I was a huge fan of the book and of my character Sophie. She is multi-faceted and facing the consequences of the decisions she has made in her life of privilege, that are catching up with her. I loved the arc and journey she embarks on and was thrilled to be part of such a talented cast and crew.”

I could not be more thrilled this was happening. And if you’re intrigued by the plot, you can always read Anatomy of a Scandal before it launches, or - if you want to avoid spoilers but to read another political thriller about power and judgement, preorder Reputation. Thank you!

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?

Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery, and Rupert Friend - my Sophie, Kate and James.

After months of keeping this news secret, this week I was finally able to reveal the three lead actors who’ll be starring in Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal. Sienna Miller will be Sophie; Michelle Dockery, Kate, and Rupert Friend, James!

Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter broke the news late on Wednesday, UK time, after Sienna Miller mentioned that she was in London waiting to film her role in an interview in Vanity Fair.

I have known about these castings for months but until they were announced I couldn’t quite believe it. Covid-19 has created such uncertainty, and though Netflix have brought in some rigorously strict protocols for protecting their cast and crew, this doesn’t feel a time in which to take anything for granted. I was, frankly, scared none of this would happen.

And yet - here is the proof, with these fabulous castings.

Here’s a link to the Deadline news story which details their impressive careers: Michelle’s most recently been seen with an impeccable US accent in Apple’s Defending Jacob; Sienna, in Showtime’s Loudest Voice, and Rupert in Strange Angel. And here are links to stories in Stylist. The Evening Standard, Hello magazine, the Daily Mail, Radio Times, and Red Online. While many female authors seem to have had the same response to me - “Ooh. Quinn in Homeland.” “I LOVE him” one stressed, perhaps unnecessarily - I’m equally excited about Sienna Miller and Michelle Dockery. I mean, just look at them. Can’t you just imagine this James and Sophie as a couple, and an intense, unnerving cross-examination by this Kate?

Filming starts before the end of this year, and, crucially for the texture of the book which focuses on iconic English settings - Parliament, Oxford, the Old Bailey - it will all be shot in the UK. What I’m so delighted about - apart from the fact that I’ll get to meet them on set (covid tests permitting!) - is that a novel that remains so relevant - an anatomy of privilege, as much as consent - and which I wrote out of contract, without knowing if anyone would publish it, is going to reach such a wider audience.

And of course I’m deleted that actors of this calibre have engaged with it. As Sienna Miller told Vanity Fair, “It feels like an important and timely story to explore. What is rape, how are women complicit in the unfolding of their lives, how well can anyone know anyone else? It’s deep and raw and is being created by an amazing team of producers and writers, and I’m a huge fan of our director, SJ Clarkson. I’m also excited to be in England in something for once!”

I could not be more excited that she, and Michelle, and Rupert are here.