Sara Sheridan on Scottish independence, stereotypes and leaving Edinburgh

I can vouch for that.

Whatever the situation, the writer, former perfume-maker and equality activist exudes calm, radiant optimism. It’s what you’d expect from someone included in the Saltire Society’s 365 most influential Scottish women – past and present.

Today she has an extra reason to smile. Sheridan’s book – set in early 19th-century Edinburgh and centred on the city’s Botanic Garden – became an instant bestseller in 2021 and was named Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year in 2022. Now The Fair Botanists is set to become a TV series – with rumours Elaine C Smith (below) will play one of its feisty leads.

That’s just another new departure for a writer proving as versatile as her historical characters. Her latest novel (her 18th), The Secrets Of Blythswood Square, released last month, went into the UK hardback chart at number 35 in its publication week. Meanwhile, Sheridan is currently reworking an earlier book, The Ice Maiden, to create a ballet with choreographer and producer Debbie Norris; "It’s set in the Antarctic, part of it on the Discovery, so we’re excited to maybe premiere the ballet in Dundee,” Sheridan says.

As well as this, there’s a piece commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival about its new site in the Old Royal Infirmary, and a Radio Four play (to be broadcast this summer), Robert Burns, His Psychotherapy And Cure. This is a new take on the life of the bard, set in modern-day Glasgow.

It’s a phenomenal work rate – and comes amid a house move from Sheridan’s native Edinburgh to Glasgow city centre along with Greenock-born husband Al and wee dog Dotty last year. But Sheridan takes bold steps lightly – including the decision to publicly back independence even as her profile across the UK is steadily rising.

“I’m out for Yes. I’m sure there are some people who will think twice about booking me because I back independence, but then there are others who will relish it. For me, 2014 was about the sudden realisation that we can run Scotland ourselves so much better. But getting independence over the line takes confidence, and to me, that’s why boosting cultural identity is so important."

Yet much as they both love Scotland, there was a time when the couple considered living elsewhere. “We did consider leaving after Brexit,” Sheridan says. “Coming from a Jewish background, on my mother’s side, these have been scary times as politics veers to the right. So, one of my thoughts was we need a backdoor – an escape route. But I have a giant, white Scottish husband who is absolutely 100% built on the Clyde. And I looked at him and thought, if he’s not scared, I’m not f**king going to be scared.

“I’m developing a voice and an understanding of being Scottish that’s growing all the time. So, we decided to stay. I want to be here to make the case for independence.”

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So how does historical fiction boost confidence and reset attitudes within Scotland today? It’s a subtle process. The Fair Botanists centres on a real event when the trees, plants, flowers, aloes and cacti of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were painstakingly moved from their former home at Leith Walk to its current site at Inverleith.

The two main characters are women, drawn to the garden – and each other – when a rare plant looks set to flower as King George IV visits Edinburgh, escorted by the author Sir Walter Scott. But dinnae be fooled by that plot twist – Sheridan is no royalist. “I’m a republican nationalist. And you know, George IV was terrible.

“I think even if you’re a royalist, he did the monarchy no favours.

So, my portrayal of his visit is gently subversive. I think my London-based editor didn’t realise quite how subversive it was going to be when she bought the book.”

Indeed, the relegation of royalty to a spoiled, seasick, gurning, petulant also-ran serves to accentuate the dignity and centrality of the real players: local people and Edinburgh itself.

According to critic Joyce McMillan, Sheridan has created “a genuine if imperfect city of enlightenment, a thrilling, optimistic and romantic landscape where science flourishes, beauty is created, wrongs are righted, possibilities are infinite, and women can begin to dream, at last, of how it might feel to be free”.

A building on Blythswood Square, Glasgow (Image: Storyshop)

But there’s no resting on laurels for the tireless Ms Sheridan. The Secrets Of Blythswood Square – centred on a female photographer in 1840s Glasgow – takes the reader back to a successful, diverse and exciting Victorian Scottish city and was deemed “Dickensian” in its scope by critic Allan Massie. Sheridan is now on the point of signing a new deal with publisher Hodder for three more historical novels.

DON’T take this the wrong way, Edinburgh, but the author’s move west has clearly been rejuvenating.

“We decided to come to Glasgow because it’s a vibrant city that remakes itself constantly,” she says. “It’s the sort of place that if there’s a good busker in the street, people will dance. It’s non-conformist. I think that’s what we need right now.”

Sheridan’s contribution to the Yes movement is reclaiming that non-conformist past and presenting Scotland’s history as diverse, active, argumentative – and all the better for it. “For me, a historical novel is a time machine. It takes people back to where we come from and lets them make connections with where they are now, and ultimately changes the focus of where they might like to be.

“In Scotland, we come from a place that is hugely more diverse than is generally recognised, in fiction or non-fiction. The idea that everyone agrees on everything is just for the birds. Society is composed of people who disagree. You see that in journals, diaries and old letters.

“So, creating a world with mouthy, working-class women; with people who can speak more than one language; who come from different communities, maybe immigrant communities, and people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community – these are exciting characters to write alongside the mainstream versions of history (the white, male-led and conservative). The truth is minorities are real fixers. They’re people that are going to change things because they’re outsiders.”

Does that also apply to independence campaigners shunned by the Scottish establishment? “Everything starts out as a minority. The movement for women’s suffrage started as a crazy idea in 1746.

“The idea of women being MPs was laughed out of Westminster – and then 172 years later, it happened, alongside the vote. All of our interesting social advances, the things we’re proudest of, come from the minority. And gradually, any dedicated minority will recruit the majority to the cause.”

There’s also the use of Scots throughout Sheridan’s books. “Allan Massie used a word the other day, tushery, which is when language is fake. You know, ‘och, it’s weel cauld the nicht’ as found in some traditional historical novels. I’ve tried to capture more exactly the way people might actually have spoken. Posh characters, too. Scots was also an upper-class language and that’s another way of normalising it."

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Confounding more stereotypes, Sheridan’s characters are not cheerful, servile, working-class heroines. “Not every working-class woman was subservient and delighted to be of service – or a victim. I’m trying to give a voice to that diversity of experience. There’s always been great debate in politics. And people have never liked mouthy women. So, women have always had to deal with it. That’s nothing new or alarming.

“When I was writing Where Are The Women [Sheridan’s remapping of Scotland to give women equal status in memorials] one of the things I kept seeing was Victorian women who thought they were the first, but in fact, Georgian women had already been there. We’re still making all those leaps as if we’re the first when we don’t actually have to.”

And Sheridan’s message on International Women’s Day? “You come from something amazing. If you don’t know that, it’s much more difficult to stand on the shoulders of giants. Yet this history is your birthright.”

The Fair Botanists is out in paperback, priced £9.99. The Secrets of Blythswood Square is out in hardback , priced £16.99. Both are published by Hodder & Stoughton. Where Are The Women?: A Guide To An Imagined Scotland is out in paperback, priced £9.99, published by Historic Environment Scotland