Sarah Penner biography

Interview

Sarah Penner discusses how she found inspiration for her debut novel, The Lost Apothecary while mudlarking on the shores of the River Thames.

In the summer of 2019, I found myself along the banks of the River Thames in London, wearing old tennis shoes and blue latex gloves. In my backpack was a small card—my temporary license from the Port of London Authority, granting me access to go mudlarking on the river's foreshore. Over the course of several days, I went down to the river three separate times, finding an assortment of pottery, clay pipes, metal pins, and even animal bones.

As readers learn from Bachelor Alf early in The Lost Apothecary, mudlarking has been around for hundreds of years. Victorian children used to scrounge around in the mud looking for items to sell for money to support their families. Today, mudlarking instead represents a pastime for locals and tourists alike. I first learned about mudlarking years ago while reading London in Fragments: A Mudlark's Treasures by Ted Sandling. In the book, he shares striking images of interesting things he's found near the River Thames. It is here that I first spotted a fragment of a mid-seventeenth century delftware apothecary jar—the inspiration for The Lost Apothecary.

The word apothecary is evocative, drawing forth visions of a candlelit storefront with sash windows, its walls lined with ...