BiographyNovelist Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester, England in 1959. She was adopted and brought up in Accrington, Lancashire, in the north of England. Her strict Pentecostal Evangelist upbringing provides the background to her acclaimed first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, published in 1985. She graduated from St Catherine's College, Oxford, and moved to London where she worked as an assistant editor at Pandora Press. |
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One of the most original voices in British fiction to emerge during the 1980s, Jeanette Winterson was named as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Writers' in a promotion run jointly between the literary magazine Granta and the Book Marketing Council.
Her novels include Boating for Beginners (1985), published shortly after Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and described by the author as 'a comic book with pictures'; The Passion (1987), twin narratives following the adventures of the web-footed daughter of a Venetian gondolier and Napoleon's chicken chef; Sexing the Cherry (1989), an invented world set during the English Civil War featuring the fabulous 'Dog Woman' and the orphan she raises; and three books exploring triangular relationships, gender and formal experimentation: Written on the Body (1992), Art and Lies (1994) and Gut Symmetries (1997). She is also the author of a collection of short stories, The World and Other Places (1998), and a book of essays about art and culture, Art Objects, published in 1995. Her most recent novel is The.PowerBook (2000), which she adapted for the National Theatre in 2002. Jeanette Winterson's work is published in 28 countries.
She adapted Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit for BBC television in 1990, and also wrote Great Moments in Aviation, a television screenplay directed by Beeban Kidron for BBC2 in 1994. She is also editor of a series of new editions of novels by Virginia Woolf published in the UK by Vintage. She is a regular contributor of reviews and articles to many newspapers and journals and has a regular column published in The Guardian. Her radio drama includes the play Text Message, broadcast by BBC Radio in November 2001.
The King of Capri (2003) and Tanglewreck (2006) are children's stories. Lighthousekeeping (2004), centres on the orphaned heroine Silver, taken in by the keeper of the Cape Wrath lighthouse, Mr Pew, whose stories of love and loss, passion and longing, are interwoven in the narrative. Her latest novel is The Stone Gods (2007).
Jeanette Winterson lives in Gloucestershire and London. In 2006, she was awarded an OBE.
Bibliography
Boating for Beginners Pandora, 1985
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Pandora, 1985
Fit for the Future Pandora, 1986
The Passion Cape, 1987
Sexing the Cherry Cape, 1989
Written on the Body Cape, 1992
Art and Lies Cape, 1994
Art Objects Cape, 1995
Gut Symmetries Granta, 1997
The World and Other Places Cape, 1998
The.PowerBook Cape, 2000
Mrs Dalloway/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
Night and Day/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
Orlando/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
To the Lighthouse/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
The Voyage Out/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
The Waves/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
The Years/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
Jacob's Room/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
Between the Acts/Virginia Woolf (series editor with Margaret Reynolds) Vintage, 2000
The King of Capri Bloomsbury, 2003
Lighthousekeeping Fourth Estate, 2004
Tanglewreck Bloomsbury, 2006
The Stone Gods Hamish Hamilton, 2007
Weight (Canongate Myth Series) Canongate, 2007
Prizes and awards
1984 Whitbread First Novel Award Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
1987 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The Passion
1989 E. M. Forster Award
1990 BAFTA (Best Drama Series/Serial) Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
1990 Prix d'argent Best Script (France) Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
1999 International Fiction Prize for Experimental Literature (Italy)
2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) (shortlist) Lighthousekeeping
2006 OBE
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