Author Interview - Rachel Canwell

1) Where did the idea for Paper Sisters come from?

The hospital and the fallen port are stories I have grown up with all my life. When the Sutton Bridge Port collapsed in 1881, the isolation hospital built to serve it remained. Trapped in time and forgotten by everyone apart from my family, who had been given custodianship of it. From 1919 onwards my nan was raised there by her Aunts Alice and Rose following the death of her parents; my mum was born in the attached house.

The idea of a forgotten hospital, trapped on the edge of a the marsh was too good a story to pass up. Especially a hospital that never had a patient.

2) The three main characters – Eleanor, Clara, Lily – are all very distinctive. What was the inspiration behind them?

The inspiration did initially come from Alice and Rose but only in the fact they were sisters. That’s where the similarities end.

I wanted to explore the concept of trauma. How it can seep through generations and how it can affect different people in so many different ways. People are fascinating and the way we all respond so differently to the same life events is what makes us human.

In Clara, Lily and Eleanor we encounter three women who are coping with adversity in their own different ways. Each of them are vying for their own slice of control and power.

3) How did you approach the historical research?

I did a lot of family research first, then branched out into the port, and what was happening in the village and local area at the time. But it got to the point where I was getting so overwhelmed by the amount of information I had gathered I had to call a halt; it was stopping me from writing.

I was so anxious to convey an accurate sense of the time without ‘information dumping’ that eventually I had to make myself write; only going back to the research when I hit a historical stumbling ​block.

4) What was the process for your writing?

I had an idea of where I was and where I wanted to get to and then I set off! It was messy and very character driven!

I love it when a character breaks ranks and takes you off in a whole new direction. All three girls did that to me all the time; especially Lily!

5) Are there any titles that you could compare Paper Sisters to?

I always find this so hard.

I am not sure if it is a comp title but when I was writing Paper Sisters I was drawn back again and again to Wake by Anna Hope. Set just after the First World War it is the story of three women whose lives have been upended by what happened to the men in their lives. It is based around the return of the Unknown Soldier to Westminster Abbey.

If I have captured even a tiny shard of the emotion in that book in Paper Sisters I am happy.

6) What are your preferred genres to read?

Literary fiction is my go to, with perhaps unsurprisingly a generous smattering of Historical Fiction! I also enjoy a really good ghost story and have a new and emerging obsession with Folk Horror!

7) Do you have any further novels planned?

I am working on book 2 which is again historical but has a more gothic and speculative feel.

8) What advice would you give an author wishing to write a historical novel?

Do your research but don’t let it take over. Just because your characters lived in the past, wearing different clothes and perhaps talking in a different way don’t forgot they felt emotion just the way we do in the present. They laughed and cried; they were as diverse as we are today.

Paper Sisters by Rachel Canwell will be released 12th February 2026. Order your copy here:

Paper Sisters - Paperback (Pre-Order)

£9.99

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