Joanna Briscoe is a British novelist.
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Joanna Briscoe was born in London in 1963. Much of her childhood was spent in the southwest of England.[1] At the age of 10 years she moved with her family from Somerset to Jordan Manor, an isolated six-bedroomed thatched Devon long house set within 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land in a valley in Dartmoor.[1] She was rather isolated and she occupied her time by reading and with her imagination by writing novels. Her novels written as a teenager were rejected by publishers, but she was convinced she would be an author.[1]
Her parents took her out of a primary school to be home schooled for under a year by an unqualified teacher nearer to home at Tor Farm, another Devon longhouse, when she was 10 years old. Many of the lessons were out-of-doors on the tors. At the age of 13 years she moved onto King Edward VI Community College, the local secondary school in Totnes, and in the sixth form she studied English.[1]
She attended University College London and worked for several years as a freelance journalist. Briscoe's short stories have featured in several anthologies. She has contributed widely to numerous publications, including the Guardian, the Independent, The Observer, and the Sunday Times and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Her first novel Mothers and Other Lovers, in which the teenage Eleanor who tries to escape from a stultifying rural life only to fall in love with her mother's new female friend, won a Betty Trask Award. Briscoe spent a lot of time in New York, researching her second novel Skin (runner-up for the Encore Award) which explored the plastic surgery and the psychological tool taken on women by the beauty industry.
Her third novel, the psychological thriller Sleep With Me published in July 2005 is, according to author and critic Jonathan Coe '… a beautifully written and emotionally candid novel which also happens to be a page-turner'. It has been published in several languages and was shortlisted for the Prince Maurice Award. Sleep With Me was adapted for ITV Drama by Andrew Davies starring Adrian Lester, Jodhi May and Anamaria Marinca.
Joanna Briscoe's fourth novel You is published in July 2011, and after being selected as a Kindle "daily deal" on 2nd December 2011 went to the top of the Amazon Kindle best-selller ranking for that day.
Joanna Briscoe lives in North London with her partner Charlotte Mendelson and their two children.[2]