Sarah grew up in a family with no television, which meant she was a voracious (if fairly indiscriminate) reader, and she was determined, from an early age, to be a writer. This led her to study journalism, and she joined ABC Radio Current Affairs where, in 1993, she won a Walkley Award. Later she became a researcher and field producer on ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent. In 1997 she resigned from the ABC and moved to the hills outside Byron Bay to devote herself to writing fiction. 

Her first novel Salt Rain was published in 2004. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award, the Queensland Premier’s Literary Prize and the Dobbie Literary Award. She went on to publish two more novels for adults, and in 2022, the first novel in a series for readers aged 8 – 12.