From the Desk of Sally Page:
Dear Readers,
As an author, I am best known for my characters and for celebrating the extraordinary that is within our ordinary lives. However, in my new novel Six Little Words, I also wanted to celebrate place. Not only because the beautiful, haunting coast of North Norfolk means so much to me, but also because Six Little Words reflects on where we call home.
The story follows Kate and Bardy, who are drawn together to become part of a creative group, giving writing and painting projects a go, perhaps for the first time. It is, in part, a later-life love story (with a love triangle thrown in!), but it also focuses on the friendships and communities found in a small coastal town.
So, why set the book in North Norfolk? Partly because I have never written a book in which place is the focus and yet have loved novels that take me away to other landscapes. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens particularly comes to mind—a book set in another coast and marshland setting. And more recently I read Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. A gorgeous gem of a book that explores the countryside of the Southwest of England, where Clare and I both live.
In the end, I decided on North Norfolk partly because of how much I love the combination of sweeping marshes and never-ending skies, plus the creeks, inlets, and villages that add an accessible and friendly aspect to the landscape. But it was also an emotional link that drew me in and committed me to five-hour-long drives to the area from my home in Dorset as I researched and wrote this novel. As a child, I had visited the area with my family, my brother and father being keen bird watchers. Now, following the death of our father, my brother and I revisited the area together, with him buying me binoculars as a gift, and me finding solace in learning about the birds and their migration through him.
As my character Leonard comments, “…as the land changes below, the birds keep flying over it all, migrating, year after year. Following the old paths, singing the old songs.”
It also came to me that the first children’s book I read that had a huge impact on me was also set here. When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson unfolded among the creeks and beaches of Norfolk, and I have never forgotten the experience of being beguiled and fascinated by the descriptions of the landscape.
With my new book about to be published, I returned to North Norfolk for the book launch, held in Cley Windmill, a nineteenth-century terracotta-and-white windmill that stands proud, looking out over the glorious landscape that I have come to love.
Sally Page is the internationally bestselling author of The Keeper of Stories, which has sold over 650,000 copies; The Book of Beginnings; and The Secrets of Flowers. After studying history at university, Sally moved to London to work in advertising. In her spare time, she studied floristry, eventually opening her own flower shop, an experience that offered a unique window into people’s lives that has inspired her writing. Sally has two daughters, the author Libby Page and Alex, a doctor. She lives in Dorset.
