Sally Magnusson is a Scottish author and broadcaster. After focussing on journalism and non-fiction, including the Sunday Times bestseller Where Memories Go, she moved into fiction with the publication in 2018 of her debut novel, The Sealwoman’s Gift, about the experience of a seventeenth century Icelandic woman abducted into slavery; it was shortlisted for 6 literary prizes. Her second novel, The Ninth Child, set during the building of the great Loch Katrine waterworks in the 1850s, was published in March 2020 to critical acclaim.
Her third novel, Music in the Dark, published by John Murray Press in May 2023, explores the Highland Clearances and their aftermath through the experiences of the women who tried to resist eviction in the township of Greenyards in Strathcarron in 1854. The action takes place over one night in July 1884, in a tenement room-and-kitchen in the town of Rutherglen near Glasgow but roams back over generations, as a displaced, working-class Highlandwoman bearing old injuries opens her mind to the man who came looking for lodgings.
Music in the Dark was described by The Scotsman as having “what Ford Madox Ford thought the mark of a great novel: the ability to make you think and feel at the same time; and you can’t or shouldn’t ask for more than that from a work of art.”:
MORE REVIEWS OF MUSIC IN THE DARK
“Her best yet . . . Beautifully written and utterly absorbing, it is a fiction fashioned from fact” ― Sunday Post
“Part understated love story and part lament for a people and way of life brushed aside to make way for a more profitable commodity . . . this affecting novel attests to a heartfelt faith in the power of song to heal wounds and keep memories alive” ― The Herald
“There is nothing tentative about Sally Magnusson’s new novel; it is a fine piece of craftsmanship . . . This is a delightful and sympathetic novel, beautifully written” ― The Scotsman
“Magnusson tackles the dual timescale with perfect assurance in a beautifully written novel that makes you think and feel at the same time” ― The i Paper
“An engrossing, beautifully written novel about the Highland Clearances and the long-term physical, emotional and psychological damage done to those who were forced from their homes and homeland. Like all good historical fiction, it both illuminates the past and speaks eloquently to the present” — James Robertson, author of The Testament of Gideon Mack
“A wonderful and moving story, beautifully told . . . an episode of history brought vividly to life” — Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
“I absolutely loved this book. An important and brutal historical event – but also a tender and unusual love story. It gave me writer envy” — Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers
“Truer to the reality of clearance and what came after than many ostensibly factual accounts of those events” — Dr James Hunter, author of Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland Clearances
“A beautifully written piece of work, achieved with immense skill. The portrayal of Jamesina Ross, as she is shattered and put back together by the light-touch constancy of Niall Munro, is perfectly balanced. The minute focus on these two individuals tells a huge story of the nineteenth century Highlands, Glasgow and North America that readers will find deeply affecting” — Shona MacLean, author of The Bookseller of Inverness
THE NINTH CHILD
‘An engaging mix of folklore and Victorian history’ (Sunday Times)
‘Pacy and accomplished, with a supernatural chill’ (The Herald)
‘An accomplished piece of writing, cementing Magnusson’s place as one of Scotland’s leading writers of historical fiction’ (Scotland on Sunday)
‘Extraordinarily vivid. Few books have this impact on me’ (Michelle Gallen, author of Big Girl Small Town)
‘An absolute triumph. I love the lively intelligent heroine and the brooding sense of menace throughout. (Sarah Haywood , author of The Cactus)
‘Wonderful. One never messes with the faeries’ (Melanie Reid, The Times)
‘A dramatic and magical novel, told with enormous zest and wit’ (Les Wilson, author of The Drowned and the Saved)
‘A very impressive piece of writing, drawing on a strong sense of place and a rich seam of history and folklore for its power’ (Donald Murray, author of As the Women Lay Dreaming)
THE SEALWOMAN’S GIFT
Shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2019, the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, the McKitterick Prize, the Waverton Good Read Award, the HWA Debut Fiction Crown and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. It was chosen for ITV’s Zoe Ball Book Club and the Radio 2 Book Club.
‘Moving, accomplished … Richly imagined and energetically told, The Sealwoman’s Gift is a powerful tale of loss and endurance.’ (Sunday Times)
‘An extraordinarily immersive read that emphasises the power of stories, examining themes of motherhood, identity, exile and freedom.’ (Guardian)
‘An enthralling mixture of recovered history and the imagining of lost lives … this is the best sort of historical novel.’ (Scotsman)
‘Magnusson has found in the silences of the historical record the space for a novel that moves gracefully between what is known and what must be imagined…Much of the pleasure of reading The Sealwoman’s Gift is that of a good yarn well told.’ ( The Times Literary Supplement)
ONE OF TEN BOOKS FEATURED ON 12 AUGUST 2018.
Sally Magnusson 