Sarah Vaughan, author of 'Based on a True Story' - Bestselling writer discusses streaming success, a chaotic writing room, and realising you're too busy

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Hobbies, Books, Leisure

4.9 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sarah Vaughan worked as a reporter and correspondent for The Guardian for years, before finally starting a novel on her 40th birthday. She published 'The Art of Baking Blind' and 'The Farm at the Edge of the World', aimed at book-clubs, which in her words, 'didn't really trouble the bestsellers list'.

Then, out of contract, she wrote, 'Anatomy of a Scandal', and everything changed. It was a smash-hit and inspired a Netflix series which was viewed hundreds of millions of times. She's since published, 'Little Disasters', which was made into a Paramount+ show, and released, 'Reputation'.

Her new novel is, 'Based on a True Story'. It tells the tale of Dame Eleanor Kingman, the nation's most loved storyteller, with an entire generation growing up on her stories.... but now, someone wants to reveal the truth about who she really is.

We discuss whether streaming success has changed how she thinks through a plot, and whether knowing what might land on screen has altered what ideas she takes on.

Also you can hear about starting late and finally getting success, why she's switched to write scenes, and her journeys through genre and writing out of contract.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode of Writers Routine is sponsored by the Quick Book Reviews podcast.
0:05.0	If this show takes you behind the scenes of writing books, the Quick Book Reviews podcast takes you into what makes them brilliant.
0:13.0	It's all about the authors too. You can join Philippa, who for the last six years, has been chatting to some of the biggest authors around and discovering
0:22.0	their newest work. If you're a reader looking for new book recommendations and getting to know
0:27.1	your favourite writers, this is the perfect show for you with in-depth chats and spoiler-free book
0:33.3	reviews in perfect bite-sized chunks to fit easily into your day.
0:38.6	Philippa gets into all the fun questions too, finding out what authors like to eat, where
0:43.7	they want to go on holiday, and the gossip about bits of their life that you won't find
0:48.8	anywhere else. All that with some very speedy book reviews, getting right to the heart of all the newest stuff out there and the best ones for you to read the quick book reviews podcast is a lighthearted look at authors and what you might love about their new book you can get two episodes a week, wherever you get your podcasts.
1:11.9	Just search for the Quick Book Reviews podcast.
1:23.2	Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of writers' routine this week chatting to Sarah Vaughan.
1:29.5	Sarah's novel Anatomy of a Scandal was adapted into a major Netflix series.
1:34.9	It's been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
1:38.2	And she's back with a brand new book based on a true story.
1:42.2	We run through the chaos of her writing room,
1:45.4	also why she's realised that maybe she's got a bit too much on.
1:49.1	I think I'm in a bit of a rust moment as the 25 minute thing does suggest,
1:52.5	just being distracted by having a lot of projects on.
1:55.5	And I just, a couple of weeks ago, I made a decision to sort of put one project on the back burner.
2:00.0	And I think that's going
2:00.9	to streamline things because the nature of writing a book and finishing it and then it obviously
2:06.4	being published you know maybe 18 months after you finished the initial drafts that you sent to your
	...

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