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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Natasha Walter: ‘Writing fiction is a less conscious act. It’s almost like breathing’

The feminist writer reveals how a planned biography of the wives of the Cambridge spies turned into her first novel

Natasha Walter is the author of two nonfiction books, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism and The New Feminism. She also founded and directs the charity Women for Refugee Women, which helps female asylum seekers in the UK. A Quiet Life is her first novel and follows the double life of a spy’s wife during the cold war.

What made you turn to fiction after a career in feminist and nonfiction writing?
I had started working on the idea for this novel as nonfiction. I wrote an article for the Guardian about Melinda Maclean [the wife of Cambridge spy Donald Maclean], and when I went on reading about her, I had in the back of my mind that I was going to write a biography about the women around the Cambridge spies.

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