Sarra Manning is a teen queen extraordinaire. She spent five years working on the legendary but now sadly defunct UK teen mag, J17, first as a writer and then as Entertainment Editor. She then joined the launch team and became editor of teen fashion bible Ellegirl UK. There followed a stint as editor of the BBC's What To Wear and consulting on Bliss, The Face and More. Sarra now writes for ELLE, Grazia, Red, InStyle, The Guardian, The Mail On Sunday's You magazine and The Sunday Telegraph's Stella. Her best-selling teen novels, which include Guitar Girl, Let's Get Lost and The Diary Of A Crush trilogy, have been translated into numerous languages and in 2008, she was shortlisted for the Book People's Queen of Teen award. In 2009, her first adult novel, Unsticky, was published. Sarra lives in North London.
A Q&A with the author
Are any of your characters based on real people?
There’s always an element of me in my heroines. Not necessarily the teenager
I was, but the teenager who I wanted to be that got to date tousle-haired art boys, always had a snappy comeback and knew how to source really good vintage dresses.
Did you always want to be a writer?
Always, always, always. Never even contemplated being anything else!
What was your favourite book as a teenager?
I was a sullen, pretentious teenager rarely seen without a copy of Sylvia Plath’s
The Bell Jar or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
If you got in Doctor Who’s tardis, where (or when) would you go?
Hmm, maybe Paris in the 1920s. Or maybe even to go back to my teenage years but knowing what I know now. That would be the ultimate do-over.
Author Image : Brian Daly
