Bury St Edmunds author Kate Sawyer draws on childhood memories for new novel This Family

Bury St Edmunds is brought to vivid life in a new book by an author who went to school in the town.

Kate Sawyer, 42, whose first novel The Stranding was Costa-shortlisted, admits her second offering This Family was informed by her childhood in Barrow.

While Kate has not named Bury or Barrow in her novel, she said readers would probably recognise elements of the town and surrounding villages, including descriptions of the Bury markets of the 1980s and 1990s – when the livestock Cattle Market was still open.

This Family is set in a Suffolk garden over one summer's day, with four generations of a fractured family brought together for the first time in years, for a wedding.

Over that day, eight family members reflect on key moments in their lives.

"It is really about how people feel and how people respond to situations," said Kate. "What I am really interested in is how humans relate to each other and how we can love each other even if we don’t get on.

"One of the pressing issues in our world is how we have become so divided as a result of our beliefs. There are bigger things to worry about in human life than some of the squabbles that erupt and divide the nation."

The first draft of This Family was written during 2020 and 2021, when the country was still in the grips of the pandemic.

“My daughter is three now but was still very small at the time and at the start of the pandemic I was living with my parents and grandmother, said Kate.

“Living in a multi-generational family as I was – we all had different needs and opinions – definitely fed into This Family."

Kate said her first novel was a learning process which had informed her approach to This Family.

“I have learned to trust myself that the story will find its right expression – and that might not be be in the first draft," said Kate.

“There were points during writing This Family when it didn’t feel right or true, but I was happy with the ideas. Then as I went through the edit it became clearer and clearer. Now, obviously I don’t agree with all the characters but I understand them more.

"That is the most important thing, that I understand why my characters think what they think and do what they do. Can we translate that to life and try to understand others even if we do not agree with them?

"I think This Family is the sort of writing where my heart lies – I am an observer of the everyday. I am interested in how events affect and shape us."

Kate has already started writing her third book.

"I have to – I am a single mum," said Kate. "But it is slower this time as I am doing more with my podcast, my daughter is older and I have two books out there. It is slow, but I am hoping that once This Family is published I will have a bit more time."

This Family is published by Coronet on May 11.

A launch event is at Bury Waterstone's, in Buttermarket, on May 12, 6.30-8pm.