| Code | DS/UK/581 |
| Person Name | Maitland; Sara (1950-); Writer |
| Dates | 1950- |
| Dates and Places | 1950: Born in London
1960s: Attends Oxford University (English Literature)
1978: Published first novel, Daughter of Jerusalem
1979: Receives the Somerset Maugham Award
1993: Converts to Roman Catholicism
1993: Begins work on first screenplay, Kubrick's A.I. Artificial Intelligence |
| History | She was born in 1950 as one of six children in London. She attended an all girl’s boarding school as a child and later attended Oxford University to study English Literature, becoming heavily involved in the political movements of the 1960s and the Women’s Liberation Movement. Additionally, influenced by her husband, an Anglican clergyman, she became interested in understanding the role of feminism in Christianity which led her to publish her first book, Daughter of Jerusalem, in 1978, which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1979. From there, her writing career took off, publishing novels, short stories, and non-fiction.
She worked with Stanley Kubrick on her first ever screenplay for A.I. Artificial Intelligence in 1993. She described the experience to be difficult as Kubrick was a challenging person to work with. Kubrick eventually put the project on an inevitable hold and passed away before completing it. Even so, she was "proud that [she] worked for him" and it gave her an interest in film writing.
Her larger body of work is largely influenced by her own life and interests, primarily feminism, solitude, religion/mythology, folklore, and the environment. Her popular works include the Moss Witch, a short story, and A Book of Silence, a memoir that describes her experience with silence and its role in modern society. She currently lectures part-time in the MA in Creative Writing program at Lancaster University and resides in Galloway, Scotland. |
| Activity | Fiction:
Daughter of Jerusalem (1978)
Tales I Tell My Mother (1978) (co-written with Zoe Fairbairns, Valerie Miner, Michele Roberts, Michelene Wander)
Telling Tales: short stories (1983)
Weddings and Funerals (1984) (co-written with Aileen la Tourette)
Virgin Territory (1984)
More Tales I Tell My Mother (1987)
A Book of Spells: short stories (1987)
Arky Types - a novel (1987)
Three Times Table (1990)
Home Truths (1993)
Women Fly When Men Aren’t Watching: short stories (1996)
Brittle Joys (1999)
On Becoming a Fairy Godmother (2003)
Far North (2008)
Stations of the Cross (2009) (co-written with Chris Collon)
Moss Witch and Other Stories (2013)
Non-fiction:
Map of a New Country (1983)
Walking on the Water: Women Talk about Spirituality (1983)
Vesta Tilley: A Cultural Study (1986)
Very Heaven: Women’s Lives in the 1960s (1988)
The Rushdie File (1989) (ed. With Lisa Appignanesi)
A Big Enough God (1994)
Virtuous Magic (1998)
Gardens of Illusion (2000) (co-written with Peter Matthews)
Pandora’s Box (1995) (text only, co-created with Christos Condeatis)
The Ancient Egypt Pack (1997) (text only, co-created with Christos Kondeatis)
The Writer’s Way (2005)
The Write Guide: a National Report on Good Practice and Recommendations for Future Development of Writer Mentoring (2007) (co-written with Martin Goodman)
A Book of Silence (2008)
Gossip from the Forest (2012)
How to be Alone (2014)
Screenplays:
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) |
| Relationships | Stanley Kubrick, collaborator |
| Source | “Sara Maitland | National Centre for Writing | NCW.” National Centre for Writing. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/international-literature-showcase/sara-maitland/. |
| Maitland, Sara. “My Year with Stanley.” The Kubrick Site, 1999. http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0119.html. Originally published in The Independent, 12 March 1999. |
| Variety Staff. “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” Variety, May 15, 2001. https://variety.com/2001/film/features/a-i-artificial-intelligence-1117799373/. |
| Maitland, Sara. “Introduction: The Swans.” British Council Arts. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/strongs/creativewriting/sara.htm. |
| Gaydos, Steven. “The Kubrick Connection.” Variety, May 14, 2000. https://variety.com/2000/film/news/the-kubrick-connection-1117779484/. |
| Associated Press. “Spielberg-Kubrick Creation ‘A.I.’ Debuts with 30.1 Million Box Office.” The Alliance-Times Herald, July 2, 2001, Associated Press. “Spielberg-Kubrick Creation ‘A.I.’ Debuts with 30.1 Million Box Office.” The Alliance-Times Herald, July 2, 2001. |
| “BBC Radio 4- Free Thinking - Seven Life Lessons from a Modern-Day Hermit.” BBC Radio 4, 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/54vnq8rcr0tPBvq8383nW5s/seven-life-lessons-from-a-modern-day-hermit. |
| Collins, Fergus. “Tribute: Sara Maitland – BBC Countryfile.” BBC Countryfile. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://c01.purpledshub.com/bbccountryfile/2022/11/16/tribute-sara-maitland/. |
| “Sara Maitland Biography - (1950– ), Daughter of Jerusalem, Virgin Territory, a Map of the New Country, Three Times Table - Women, Feminist, Book, and London - JRank Articles.” JRank. Accessed July 25, 2026. https://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4924/Sara-Maitland.html. |
| “Sara Maitland | Jenny Brown Associates.” Jenny Brown Associates. Accessed July 26, 2026. https://jennybrownassociates.com/author/sara-maitland. |