Interview: Sarah Marsh on her debut historical novel A Sign of Her Own, featuring Alexander Graham Bell (BSL)

Hi Sarah, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed! Firstly can you tell us a little bit about you?

Thank you so much for having me! I’m a big fan of The Limping Chicken. I’m a writer, and my first novel, A Sign of Her Own, is out now and was published on 1st February.

Have you always written? How did you get into it?

I’ve been writing for years. I always loved reading as a child. After University I started thinking about writing more seriously but it took me a while to find the story I really want to write about, and even longer to find the time to write it.

In 2019 I entered the Lucy Cavendish Prize and was lucky enough to get shortlisted. I met my agent through the prize, and that was how my book got published.

What inspired you to write A Sign of Her Own?

About fifteen years ago I read When the Mind Hears by Harlan Lane and learned about Alexander Graham Bell’s work with deaf pupils. I was amazed that hardly anyone knew about this side of the telephone’s story.

I grew up deaf myself, so I was really interested in the experience of his pupils. They were a side note in the historical records and I really wanted to write about them, and make their experiences as deaf people more central.

What was the writing process like?

It took me a long time to write this book – over 10 years. I found the writing process very challenging at times. For one thing, I needed to do a lot of research on the telephone and also Deaf history.

It was difficult deciding which historical events to focus on, and how to weave my main character’s journey into those events. I remember making so many charts and notes to map it all out.

The main character is Ellen Lark who is a young deaf woman and one of Bell’s pupils. She uses different communication methods (some speech, lipreading, notebooks and sign language) so it was a creative challenge finding a way to capture dialogue in written prose.

Mainly it was a case of constant experimentation and re-writing. I remember practicing lipreading errors in the mirror, and writing out the notes Ellen exchanged with people, to think about how she might express herself in her notebooks. It’s very hard to give sign language a written form, so my main concern was to represent it sensitively.

There were some really enjoyable chapters too – for example, I really enjoyed researching St Saviours Church (a church for deaf people) in Oxford Street and including that in the novel.

The book is quite highly charged with topics that the deaf community may feel quite strong about such as speech therapy and audism – are these issues that you feel strongly about educating people on? 

Yes, I do feel strongly that there should be more awareness of how Bell’s highly controversial ideas about deaf education have harmed many deaf people and the Deaf community. He wasn’t the only person with these ideas of course, but he was one of the most influential.

I also wanted people to have a better understanding of the kind of barriers that deaf people face, so the book is told from a deaf person’s perspective.

In terms of my own experiences, I did have some speech therapy as a child. I can remember the frustration of trying to say sounds I just couldn’t hear. I definitely drew on my experiences of audism – particularly society’s idea that that deafness should be ‘fixed’ and ‘hidden.’

When I was growing up the solution was always sound and hearing aids. No-one suggested learning BSL or meeting other deaf people.

My mother and aunts are deaf too, and had the same experience. People have complimented us on our speech and don’t realise why that is problematic, and that it’s linked to an oppressive history of oralism and audism.

How did your own journey with deafness and BSL influence your writing?

I was diagnosed when I was around 6 months old, but I have progressive deafness so I got more deaf over my childhood. I mainly use hearing aids and lipreading to communicate. I have deaf and hard of hearing family members (my mum and aunts), but we didn’t learn sign language because it was discouraged.

This influenced my writing because I wanted to understand why my family’s deafness was seen as a ‘medical problem’. So I started reading about Deaf history to understand why many deaf people have had little access to their own language and culture.

When I was at University, I met another deaf person my age. Twenty years later, we’re still great friends. Talking with her really made me think deeply about my own deafness.

I also started learning BSL. It’s really helped me at work (working with interpreters) and I love connecting with other deaf people. That was another reason I wanted to write this book – to show the importance of deaf friendships and role models.

To a lot of the deaf community Alexander Bell would probably be classed as an oppressor to deaf culture, how did you want to portray him in your story?

I agree that Bell’s ideas about oralism have had a really negative impact on the Deaf community, and I wanted that to come through in the book.

However, it was tricky writing about Bell in my novel because I had to think about the standards and attitudes of the Victorian era. Also, some of Bell’s actions, such as his paper on eugenics and his support for the Milan Conference, happened after the events of my novel, so I couldn’t include those.

I focused on the period of his life when he was quite young (late twenties) and trying to invent the telephone, while working with his deaf pupils. It was during this time that his work with deaf people helped pave his way to the telephone.

I asked myself: what would Ellen think of Bell, given the prevailing attitudes around her? I’m really interested in the way deaf and disabled people can internalise society’s negative ideas. This was especially true in the past.

Bell would have been an influential figure for his pupils, and I wanted to explore this complex relationship. So at first Ellen accepts his ideas, but later starts to question them, and has to find a way to break free.

In terms of research, I read his biographies and letters. I also read as much as I could about his pupils (although the information is limited).

There are several brilliant books on Deaf history and culture in the 19th century (for instance, Forbidden Signs by Douglas Baynton and Words Made Flesh by R.A.R. Edwards). I also found it really useful to read deaf journals and newspapers from that time.

Did you base lead character Ellen on anyone in particular?

Ellen is a fictional character. Her story is partly inspired by one of Bell’s pupils, Theresa Dudley. Bell often used Theresa to demonstrate his methods in public. Her class notebooks are in the online archives.

I was also interested in a pamphlet I found about another pupil, Jeanie Lippitt, who talks about Bell showing her the early telephone in their lessons.

Ellen is also based on Bell’s wife, Mabel, who was deaf. They both lose their hearing aged four, due to scarlet fever, and English is their first language. But Mabel didn’t associate with other deaf people while Ellen takes a different path: she meets a deaf man, learns sign language and becomes more involved in the Deaf community.

But I think her story will feel familiar to many modern deaf readers, as in many ways Ellen feels ‘between’ Deaf and Hearing worlds.

I hope Ellen’s story gives readers an appreciation of what it’s like to be deaf but also of one woman’s determination to make her own way in the world. I think her story touches on lots of universal themes like loneliness, community, and how language connects us.

In a nutshell what would you say the book is about and why should people (deaf or hearing) read it?

Making connections: Bell’s attempts to connect people through the telephone, and the connections that deaf people made with each other in the 19th century – and how Bell tried to suppress this.

I always feel a bit cautious telling anyone what they should read, as everyone has different tastes, but I’d like to think that this book will help readers have more awareness of a lesser-known history.

And I do hope deaf readers will identify something of their own experience in the book. I really think we need more deaf stories and representation in media and books, although it’s starting to improve.

I think hearing readers should definitely put something by a deaf creator on their cultural agenda – whether it’s fiction, poetry, dance, film, theatre. There are so many important deaf stories out there, and they deserve to be seen and heard.

What do you wish hearing people / mainstream media understood most about deafness?

I wish people understood that deafness is a really varied experience and deaf people are all different. There are many different ways to be deaf.

I also wish people understood that technology like hearing aids is just an aid (for some deaf and hard of hearing people) and not a cure, and it’s really important for deaf children to have deaf peers and role models.

I think people are becoming more interested in sign language and Deaf culture, which is great, but it’s so frustrating when access still isn’t provided for deaf and disabled people. Things are starting to improve, but there are still barriers.

Do you have any advice for other budding writers who are deaf or want to write a story featuring deafness?

Find a supportive group of other writers who understand what you are trying to do. Writing is a hard career and peer support really keeps you going.

Look out for opportunities for deaf and disabled writers on social media. For example, Spread the Word and CRIPtic Arts run some great salons. Curtis Brown Creative recently ran a mentoring programme for disabled writers.

I think it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be your job as a writer to be an ‘educator’. Write the story that matters to you, in the way you want to write it.

Read widely. I definitely found it hard when I started writing because so few books feature deaf stories. But recently this has been changing.

There are some great books by deaf authors and poets like Raymond Antrobus, Ilya Kaminsky, Lisa Kelly, Sara Novic, Louise Stern, Jessica White. They’re all so different, and illustrate the creative possibilities of writing about deafness.

Are there any challenges to being a writer who is deaf? How do you get around these?

Definitely. Networking and writing events can be really helpful when you’re starting to write, but so often they’re inaccessible. I always look out for accessible events, but it is still really frustrating.

It was easier during lockdown when captioned events were online. But there are fewer of those opportunities now. I do think accessible events aren’t well advertised and need more outreach. I try to let an organisation know when they could advertise something better, and I also find deaf-led Facebook groups really helpful.

My publishers have been great, but I think publishing as an industry isn’t used to working with deaf and disabled people. I wrote an Access Rider early on to make sure my access requirements were really clear.

My publishing team has been really good making sure people understand what I need for events or other PR activity. Getting Access to Work support as a freelancer really helped too.

What’s next for you?

Hopefully finishing another book!

A Sign of Her Own is available for purchase at a range of retailers as stated here.