Women on journey to find voice

BOTH Fearne Cotton and Sara Cox are incredible broadcasters who are continuing to grow and explore new creative ways of expressing themselves, from memoirs to fiction.

Scripted is Fearne’s debut novel. She shared that she has a wild imagination so thought it was time to write one of the many stories in her head.

Way Back is the second novel for Sara Cox and she loves conjuring up characters and writing a great plot twist. As her characters come to life in the novel, they lead the way to what happens next in the story.

Fearne manages to fit writing around her many projects such as voiceovers and Happy Place festival planning. She recognises that “anything creative is precarious” and at any point it could remain incomplete.

Both authors described themselves as quiet and introverted and, like many authors, they draw on real life in in their creative process.

Sara’s father was a farmer and that influences the setting for her novel. Themes include class, child poverty and depression.

Fearne is interested in the roles we play depending on who we’re surrounded by. For many years she was a people pleaser and explores this in a creative way.

Both novels are about women and what we carry from our childhoods and how female friendships are valuable. Love features too but not as a cliché. They are really about the journey of these women and how they find their voice.

Shirley Anstis