Any time you’re in a room with New York Times bestselling historical romance author Sarah MacLean, you’ll walk out with her books and a list of other authors to read and a few movies and TV shows to watch. She is nothing if not a one-woman reccing ball! With her latest, Wicked and the Wallflower, released on June 19 and Hulu’s gritty period drama Harlots coming back on July 11, I couldn’t help but snag her for a quick Q&A about bastards, brothels, and more!
So, you’ve been a notorious Harlots evangelist since its first season. Can you tell us what’s so awesome about the show?
Sarah MacLean: I think I was obsessed with Harlots the moment I saw the ads in NYC subway stations — the gorgeous, high-haired, Georgian Jessica Brown Findlay (where are my Lady Sybil fans from Downton Abbey?!), reclined, showing her stockings and staring unabashedly out at passersby. What I didn’t realize then was how much I would need Harlots — the powerful, unapologetic, intersectional feminist balm that I didn’t know to ask for in 2017 (and now 2018)! It’s so perfectly about life in the margins, about sex workers, about women, about people of color and queer people, about people who live in poverty, and the way the world tries to steal power from us, and we steal it right back. I know I sound like Harlots is TV Jesus here — maybe evangelist is the exact right word for how I feel about this show! — but it’s a show that is entirely produced, directed and written by women, with a largely female cast and crew, and so authentically about the female gaze and about identity as politic, that it puts its money where its mouth is…and I absolutely want adore it.
What is your big hope for the second season?
Sarah: More of all of it. More diversity of character and experience, more conscious representation of the interplay between sex and power for women, more of a representation of culture and identity are undeniably interconnected and more of an exploration of class, gender, race, sexuality and commodity all intersect. On a more personal level, I’m incredibly hopeful that we’ll see a lot more of domme Nancy Birch, who is one of the few characters in the show who retains both her power and her moral code. Oh, and if more patriarchy gets smashed in the process, I am here for it.