Sally Gardner Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Award-winning novelist Sally Gardner introduces her new work, The Weather Woman, an atmospheric novel set in the 18th century between the two great frost fairs about a woman ahead of her time.

Neva Friezland is born with a gift. She can predict the weather. It is a dangerous gift in an age when the goal for a woman is marriage and only God can predict the weather, but it is also potentially lucrative. Neva adopts a male disguise so she can debate with scientists and move freely. She foretells the weather from inside an automaton created by her father. But what happens when a disguised Neva falls in love with a charismatic young man?

Gardner’s debut children’s novel, I, Coriander, won the Nestle Gold Award. She is also winner of a Costa and Carnegie award. Her books have sold two million copies around the world and been translated into more than 25 languages. Her adult works include The Snow Song, described by the Independent as ‘a gorgeous love story . . . with more than a magical touch of realism’.