OT What are your favourite places to visit
Sonja Price The sea holds a magnetic pull for me, so when Im in England, I often take off to Devon and Cornwall for the cosy coves and sandy beaches. For exotic locations, the Kashmir Valley is on the top of my listit is incredibly beautiful, cradling a valley lush in sycamore woods and fields of saffron. A veritable paradise.
OT What does travel mean to you
Sonja Price Freedom and inspiration. You can escape the humdrum of everyday life, and in a place like Kashmir, there is plenty of fodder for a story. I have loved to travel from an early age, and I must have passed this bug on to my children, as my youngest daughter is now travelling around Columbia.
OT Tell us about your novel The Giants Look Down.
Sonja Price Ten-year-old Jaya decides to follow in her fathers footsteps to become a doctor, much to the chagrin of the patriarchal community of 1960s Kashmir. When disaster strikes, she is faced with obstacles as insurmountable as the Himalaya. Forced to take refuge in Scotland, she must negotiate both a foreign culture and the rapids of love. Just how far will she go to achieve her dream of building a clinic high up in the foothills of Kashmir
OT What was the inspiration behind it
Sonja Price Driving to work one day, I heard a report about the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. The place sounded beautiful despite the catastrophe. It caught my imagination and I couldnt stop thinking about it.
OT Tell us about places you have visited to research your books.
Sonja Price I have never been to India, although I have been to Scotland. You may think me audacious, but writers go where their imagination takes them, and if they are any good, they can convince readers.
OT You are from England and live in Germany. What do you like about these places
Sonja Price Germany is a land of forests, mountains and castles. Where I live in Weimar, there seems to be a castle every five miles, and there is one walking route from my house where I pass three different ones. Its quite easy to buy your own castle in Germany. The UK, with its breezy climate (and rain) and extensive coastline, is the home of my heart. I lived in Wells, the most English of towns, with ancient buildings, beautiful old roads, a bishops palace, a cathedral and a thriving market.
OT What do you never travel without
Sonja Price A book to enjoy, and pen and paper to jot down my impressions and ideas of the place I am visiting to use for my stories later.