Tanya Sweeney meets break-out fiction star Lara Prescott

Espionage and romance are the twin themes of Lara Prescott’s debut novel, a story based on how the CIA smuggled copies of Doctor Zhivago into the USSR at the height of the Cold War, writes Tanya Sweeney

Lara Prescott: ‘I’m one of these people who procrastinate so that they can do more research. For me, delving into the research really fuels the writing’ Pic: Trevor Paulhus

Every so often, a book causes a bidding frenzy among publishers, turning its author into an overnight sensation. Last year, it was the turn of Lara Prescott, a former political consultant based in Texas. After a 12-publisher scrum, Prescott reportedly bagged herself a $2 million advance – something she readily admits was “life-changing”.

“I was in a state of shock for a month,” she recalls. “When it was going out to publishers, I ...