Stephanie Theobald

Stephanie Theobald

Stephanie Theobald (born 29 August 1966) is a British novelist and journalist, author of Biche and three other novels. The Times described her as “One of London’s most celebrated literary lesbians.”^[1] She was dubbed a “notorious lesbian author” by the Daily Mail in 2007.^[2] In a Varsity 2011 interview with Theobald the paper described her as “No ordinary female writer.”^[3] She has been the subject of controversy – punk designer Vivienne Westwood is a vociferous anti-fan of Theobald’s work. At a London society party in 2009 she approached her to announce that she ‘hated’ Theobald’s novels adding that A Partial Indulgence was “Like vomit coming at you off the page.”^[4]

Background

Theobald was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in 1966. She was educated at Tremough Convent, Cornwall, (now home to Falmouth University) Penryn from 1971 until 1983, then the Plume School in Maldon from 1983 to 1985. She attended Jesus College, Cambridge from 1985 to 1989, reading the Modern and Medieval languages tripos. Theobald’s grandfather, Bertram Jesse Theobald, a tool turner, founded a fish-and-chip business in 1943 in Spring Road, Ipswich after he escaped France in one of the Dunkirk small boats and was seconded out of the army to make weapons. Theobald has described^[5] how Winston Churchill had announced that fish and chips would not rationed and Bertram’s wife, Iris believed there would be money to make from the business. When Theobald’s father, Roy Theobald, came out of National Service in Malaysia in 1960^[6] he joined the family business which now included four shops in the Ipswich area. In 1969, Roy bought a fish-and-chip business in Arwenack Street in Falmouth, Cornwall and the family – his wife Veronica and their three children, Christopher (born 1965) and twins Stephanie and Nicholas – moved there.

Career

During her year out to study French in Paris in 1987 she worked for the Time Out-owned magazine Paris Passion where she started writing journalism articles.

After graduating in 1989, she moved to live and work in Paris. She taught English and ended up freelancing for The European, a newspaper owned by Robert Maxwell.

In 1993 she moved to London to work full-time as the fashion editor of The European. She worked there until 1998 when she left to write Biche, an account of her days trying to find sex in Paris which, until that time, had been seen as the traditional preserve of male expats such as Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller. From 2004 until 2008 she worked as the senior editor of the social pages of UK Harper’s Bazaar.^[7]

Works

In 1999 Theobald published an essay called "Lesbians on Horseback" in the feminist collection On The Move (Virago) edited by Natasha Walter. Here, Theobald coined the term “bi-try,” meaning a woman who has a casual fling with another woman without the commitment of identifying as a bisexual. ^[2] In 2000 her first novel, Biche, was published by Hodder and Stoughton, describing her life in Paris. Julie Burchill, quoted on the cover, described it as "Sexy without being 'erotic', funky without being 'feisty', funny without being 'zany' and rebellious without being 'irreverent'”. Zoe Williams in the London Evening Standard described it as ‘Among the most genuinely evocative and amusing naughty stuff I've ever read . . . . A witty, mucky, authentic book, which puts a new and most-welcome spin on this Looking-For-The-One genre’.^[8] In 2001 Sucking Shrimp was published by Hodder and Stoughton. The Face said “As vivid as a Baz Luhrmann movie”.^[9] She followed this in the same year with ‘The Masturbation Map’ in Girls’ Night Out (Harper Collins) edited by Jessica Adams, Chris Manby and Fiona Walker.^[10] Her next novel Trix was published in 2004 by Sceptre. “An effortless, natural poet.” according to the Guardian.^[11] In 2009 she published A Partial Indulgence by Sceptre. The book was given a favorable review in The Times: “Art, sex, money, class - this novel delivers them all, with enormous style.”^[12][13]

As a journalist she writes for a wide variety of publications.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Personal life

While Theobald worked as the social editor of UK Harper’s Bazaar (2004-2008), she was linked with the flamboyant fashion editor, Isabella Blow when she briefly dated her estranged husband, Detmar Blow. The story and atmosphere of that time was played out in Theobald’s fourth novel, A Partial Indulgence.^[18][19][20] When she began to date novelist Jake Arnott in 2005, their apparent bisexuality caused a furore in the press because they had been assumed to be respectively lesbian and gay.^[21][22][23] She has also worked as a volunteer in her local community in South London with a group of over eighties offering reminiscence writing classes.^[24]

References