Joanna Briscoe
Joanna Briscoe is a British novelist.
Early life
Briscoe was born in London in 1963. Much of her childhood was spent in the southwest of England.[1] At the age of 10, she moved with her family from Somerset to Jordan Manor, an isolated six-bedroom thatched Devon long house set within 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land in a Dartmoor valley.[1] She was rather isolated and she occupied her time reading and writing. Her works written as a teenager were rejected by publishers, but she was convinced she would be an author.[1]
Her parents took her out of primary school and arranged for her to be home schooled by an unqualified teacher at a nearby farm when she was 10 years old. Many of the lessons were out-of-doors on Dartmoor. At the age of 13 years she returned to mainstream schooling at King Edward VI Community College, the local secondary school in Totnes, and in the sixth form she studied English.[1]
Career
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 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 toll 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 and starred Adrian Lester, Jodhi May, and Anamaria Marinca.
Briscoe's fourth novel You was published in July 2011, and after being selected as a Kindle "daily deal" on 2 December 2011, went to the top of the Amazon Kindle best-seller ranking for that day.
Personal life
Briscoe lives in North London with her partner Charlotte Mendelson and their two children.[2]
Novels
- Mothers and Other Lovers (1994)
- Skin (1997)
- Sleep With Me (2005)
- You (2011)
Awards and nominations
- Betty Trask Award (1995)
- Encore Award (shortlisted) (1998)