Sara Collins

Collins was born in Kingston, Jamaica. When she was four years old, her family migrated to Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, the home of her paternal grandmother, in light of political violence following the 1976 Jamaican election.{{Cite web|url= https://leslielindsay.com/2019/06/19/sara-collins-talks-about-her-sublime-debut-how-history-is-a-form-of-collective-memory-black-women-in-history-how-writing-is-a-form-of-exorcism-and-so-much-more-in-the-confessions-of-frannie-langt/|title=Sara Collins talks about her sublime debut|website=Leslie Lindsay|date=19 June 2019|access-date=2 March 2021}} She attended boarding school in England at the age of 11.{{Cite journal|url= https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/a-world-beyond-just-being-a-slave|title= A world beyond just being a slave|journal=Straits Times|first=Olivia|last=Ho|date=9 April 2019|access-date=2 March 2021}}{{Cite web|url= https://www.caymanparent.com/sara-collins/|title=Sara Collins|website=Cayman Parent|access-date=2 March 2021}}

Collins went on to graduate in law from the London School of Economics. She worked for 17 years as a lawyer, during which time she jointly edited International Trust Disputes. She was a partner and Head of Trust & Private Client in the Cayman Islands office of Conyers Dill & Pearman.{{cite web |title=International Trust Disputes: Author information |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/international-trust-disputes-9780199594702?q=sara%20collins&lang=en&cc=gb# |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=17 December 2020 |date=19 January 2012}}

Collins took a Master of Studies degree in creative writing at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge, in 2014–2016.{{cite web |title=Meet ICE creative writing graduate, Sara Collins to mark the publication of her first novel |url=https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/events/569524 |website=www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk |publisher=Cambridge Network |access-date=16 December 2020 |date=2019}} While studying at Cambridge, she was awarded the 2016 Michael Holroyd prize for non-fiction (or, as he termed it, "recreative writing") for her work Knocking on Walcott's Door, described as "a form of literary autobiography".{{cite web |last1=Hatley |first1=Josh |title=The Michael Holroyd Prize for 'Recreative' literature awarded at Madingley Hall |url=https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news/michael-holroyd-prize-recreative-literature-awarded-madingley-hall |website=www.ice.cam.ac.uk |publisher=University of Cambridge: Institute of Continuing Education |access-date=16 December 2020 |language=en |date=16 May 2016}}

The Confessions of Frannie Langton takes the form of the deposition of a woman charged with murder, written for her trial at the Old Bailey in London in 1826. Frannie Langton had grown up enslaved on a Jamaican sugar plantation, where her slave-owner had employed her in his research "desperate to prove that Africans aren't human". She was "given" to George Benham and his French wife in London, although free under English law,{{cite news |last1=Pulley |first1=Natasha |title=The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins review – a stunning debut |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/04/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton-by-sara-collins-review |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=4 April 2019 |language=en}} and "Then, in unclear circumstances, the Benhams are murdered". The book was published in 2019 by Viking, who acquired it shortly before nine companies were due to bid for its rights.{{cite news |last1=Cowdrey |first1=Katherine |title=Viking pre-empts Collins' debut |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/viking-pre-empts-debut-slave-tale-nine-way-auction-642401 |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The Bookseller |date=21 September 2017}} Reviewing the book in The Guardian, Natasha Pulley praised it and said "Between her historical research, Frannie's voice and a plot that never slows to a walk, the novel pulls the gothic into new territory and links it back to its origins."{{cite news |last1=Pulley |first1=Natasha |title=The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins review – a stunning debut |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/04/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton-by-sara-collins-review |access-date=16 December 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=4 April 2019 |language=en}} The reviewer in The Irish Times called the novel "a beguiling story with strong feminist overtones".{{cite news |last1=Gilmartin |first1=Sarah |title=The Confessions of Frannie Langton: From the Caribbean to the courthouse |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton-from-the-caribbean-to-the-courthouse-1.3831686 |access-date=16 December 2020 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=30 March 2019 |language=en}} Collins won the First Novel award in the 2019 Costa Book Awards.

Collins was shortlisted for the 2020 McKitterick Prize, awarded by the Society of Authors to a debut novelist over the age of 40.{{cite web |title=The 2020 McKitterick Prize - Celebrating debut novelists over 40 |url=https://www2.societyofauthors.org/2020/08/11/the-2020-mckitterick-prize-celebrating-debut-novelists-over-40/ |website=The Society of Authors |access-date=16 December 2020 |date=11 August 2020}}{{cite web |title=McKitterick Prize |url=https://societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Society-of-Authors-Awards/McKitterick |website=societyofauthors.org |date=8 May 2020 |access-date=16 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216230833/https://societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Society-of-Authors-Awards/McKitterick |archive-date=16 December 2020}}

In 2020, ITV announced that they had commissioned Collins to adapt The Confessions of Frannie Langton for the 2023 four-part television series with Drama Republic, beginning in August 2021 and wrapping in November.{{cite press release |title=ITV commissions adaptation of The Confessions of Frannie Langton novel |url=https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-commissions-adaptation-confessions-frannie-langton-novel |website= |publisher=ITV Press Centre |access-date=16 December 2020 |language=en |date=27 August 2020}} Filming took place across Yorkshire at locations such as Duncombe Park, Dewsbury Town Hall, South Parade, Wakefield, Dalton Mills, Hull Old Town, Temple Newsam, Versa Leeds Studios, York Mansion House, Bramham Park and Sledmere House.{{cite web |url=https://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/funding/productions/the-confessions-of-frannie-langton/ |title=The Confessions of Frannie Langton |website=Screen Yorkshire}}

Collins splits her time between London and Cayman. She married Scottish lawyer Iain McMurdo in 2008. They were both single parents when they met at their law firm, McMurdo a widower with three daughters and Collins a divorcee with two.{{Cite journal|url= https://www.pressreader.com/uk/good-housekeeping-uk/20200101/281633897103546|title=Families are built by love, not biology: How new traditions made a difference to this blended family|journal=Good Housekeeping|first=Sara|last=Collins|date=1 January 2020|access-date=2 March 2021}}

• {{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Sara |title=The Confessions of Frannie Langton |date=4 April 2019 |publisher=Viking |location=London |isbn=978-0241349199}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Collins |editor-first=Sara |editor2=Steven Kempster|editor3=Morven McMillan |editor4=Alison Meek|title=International Trust Disputes |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199594702}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://saracollinsauthor.com}}
• {{cite web |title=Meet the author: Sara Collins |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/jan/sara-collins-author-interview.html |website=www.penguin.co.uk |access-date= |date=6 January 2020}} Interview

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Sara}}

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century British novelists

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge

Category:British women novelists

Category:Caymanian expatriates in England

Category:Costa Book Award winners

Category:Jamaican emigrants to the Cayman Islands

Category:Writers from Kingston, Jamaica