Julia stuart author biography for book

Interview

Julia Stuart talks about the inspiration for her books, in particular her 2010 novel, The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise.

Julia Stuart talks about The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

Authors famously don't like to be questioned about where they get their ideas from.

I suspect it's because they're asked it so often. Yet I still think it's one of the most salient questions a reader can ask. You can't write a book about a menagerie of exotic beasts housed at the Tower of London, a beefeater who collects rain samples, and a chaplain who writes erotica and expect not to have to account for it somewhere down the line.

Julia stuart author biography for book

I have a plump blue folder on which I've written the words "book ideas", in the hope that it will provide me with some. It is filled with articles torn out of newspapers and magazines that have either made me laugh or tugged at my heartstrings.

They are not fully formed plots (alas), just s