Born in 1950, Sara Maitland is a writer and feminist theologian whose first work Daughter of Jerusalem won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1979. She has since written five more novels and has published five collections of short stories. Her latest book is On Becoming a Fairy Godmother (Maia Press, 2003) – a collection of magical realist tales. Sara is the mentor co-ordinator for Crossing Borders (a joint project of The British Council and Lancaster University to deliver mentoring programmes to emergent African writers) and teaches on the Lancaster MA in Creative Writing. She has a particular interest in the meeting points of mysticism and madness and is presently working on a history of Silence. She has recently moved to Dumfries and Galloway where she is rebuilding a derelict cottage in North Wigtownshire.