Sara Barnard

About Author

Sara Barnard's This Song is About Us is a powerful YA novel exploring first love, fame and social media.

After Sara graduated, she became a content writer at an international online healthcare company in London - but what she had always wanted do was to be a writer. Sara had written 'countless stories' by the age of 13, the same year that she wrote a story about a girl. After many re-writes, that story became Beautiful Broken Things which was published by Macmillan Children's Books.

You can find Sara Barnard on Twitter @saramegan / Instagram @SaraMegan87

Interview

This Song is About Us (Walker Books)

April 2025

Sara Barnard explores fame, social media and the music festivals that helped inspire her new YA novel, This Song is About Us.

The novel follows Ruby and Drew's intense first love. When Drew is catapulted into fame along with his band mates. Ruby has to decide whether to join them, or to keep their relationship secret. Whatever she decides will change both their futures. This is a book about first love, told across three music festivals; the perfect read this summer!

Read a Chapter from This Song is About Us

Review: "A compelling, thoroughly enjoyable read (I could not put it down!) which will leave everyone hoping for a happy ending!"

Sara Barnard introduces This Song is About Us, an intense story about first love, music and festivals

"I've always found the behind the scenes side of fame - the mundanity, rather than the glamour - the most interesting aspect of it.
I'm fascinated by the gap between the living reality and the glossy image."

1. How did you start writing for YA readers, and what kinds of books do you want to write?

I find the teenage voice to be a very natural fit for me - 17/18 is my sweet spot. I enjoy writing YA because it's just such an inherently interesting time of life. Even if "nothing" is happening, so much is happening! My favourite thing to write is emotion, and the emotions in the teenage years are so intense; everything is felt so deeply.

2. What happens in your new book, This Song Is About Us?

Well, the reader is taken on a journey through the relationship of Ruby and Drew over the course of three music festivals that take place over three consecutive years. Drew's band, The Kerbs, is just about to get famous at the first festival, and he and Ruby decide to keep their relationship a secret, to protect it. You see the effect this decision has on their relationship, and how fame changes people, for good and bad.

3. Does the book draw on your own love of festivals? Did a visit to a music festival help inspire this story, or did it start somewhere else?

I do love music festivals, but I didn't go to them as a teenager, unfortunately! I was too anxious at the time, but not anymore! I went to Reading Festival with my best friend while I was drafting this book and I loved it.

The book was inspired by watching a love story play out between two famous musicians (you may be able to guess who) in the media. It fascinates me that we only see about 5% - at best! - of the reality of that kind of relationship, yet people talk as if they know 100%. What must that be like to live through?

4. How do you draw on your Reading Festival experience in the book?

Reading was the most memorable, not just because I never thought I'd be doing Reading at 35, but because a lot of things went wrong, so it was quite a stressful experience! For the book, I drew more on the stories from friends who had the full teenage festival experience. Though some of that wouldn't be suitable for today's YA!!

5. So does music play a big part in your life? What is at the top of your summer bands to see and top of your summer playlist?

Music is a huge part of my life. I can't walk down the street without my headphones in. The 1975 is top of my list - I'm still holding out hope I can magically get Glastonbury tickets. I'm seeing the Stereophonics and Sam Fender this summer, too, so it's going to be a great summer for music for me.

6. Through Ruby and Drew's relationship, you explore the downside of fame and social media - and the 'behind the scenes' world of bands in concert and their management, How did you research this?

It's something I've been interested in for a long time and just immersed myself in over the years, so there was a lot of it that I was already familiar with. I've always found the behind the scenes side of fame - the mundanity, rather than the glamour - the most interesting aspect of it. I'm fascinated by the gap between the living reality and the glossy image for the people at the heart of it. So much happens in that gap, and we don't see any of it.

8. This Song Is About Us is a beautiful and intense look at first love. As you wrote, did you know how Drew and Ruby's relationship would play out? Did you think about Ruby going public with their relationship at all?

Thank you! I didn't know when I started writing how it would end. I wanted it to feel like a natural progression - the story would show me the way, and it did.

In terms of Ruby going public, I never considered it in any real way because it would never have been right - I just knew she would never do that to Drew (or herself), and there was no way to make it feel like an authentic decision she would have made. I did think about other ways it could have happened, but nothing fitted well with the story I wanted to tell.

9. The story is a very personal look at first love and fame through Ruby's eyes, and is written from her perspective, but as she is the one who stays at home, how did you keep the pace of the novel moving forwards?

Pace was a big challenge with this book, because as well as it being from Ruby's perspective, the reader is only seeing the characters for three days every three years, so there are huge gaps in between. I didn't want these to feel jarring to the reader, or for them to feel like they missed out.

I didn't think about including Drew's perspective because that would have been a very different book - the structure would have been very different, and the focus would have been, as well. The way I tried to approach it was to make it feel as grounded as possible in Ruby's reality, so you - as the reader - would be as invested as she is.

10. Do you plan to revisit Ruby and Drew, or has their story been told? What are you writing currently? What does a perfect day away from your notebook look like?

For me, I think their story has been told! I don't have any plans to revisit them. I wouldn't rule out checking in on them or some of the other characters in some way in the future, though... I'm currently drafting a non-YA project - I'm excited about it but it's still in its early stages.

A perfect day away from my notebook would have to include music, cake and my favourite people. Just imagine me dancing with my little nephews to The 1975, holding a cupcake.

Sara Barnard introduces her earlier book, Where the Light Goes (Walker Books, May 2023)

In Where the Light Goes, Sara Barnard explores grief, toxic fame, and the real lives that lie behind the lens of social media. Her novel follows Emmy, who has lost her famous sister to suicide, and explores what happens to those left behind after her death.

Read a Chapter from Where the Light Goes

5* Review: 'I highly recommend this book for teenagers as so much can relate to life as a young person living in today's modern world. '

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