Kate Atkinson (writer): Difference between revisions
| Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
**''When Will There Be Good News?'' (2008) |
**''When Will There Be Good News?'' (2008) |
||
**''Started Early, Took My Dog'' (2010) |
**''Started Early, Took My Dog'' (2010) |
||
*''Life After Life'' (2013) |
|||
===Plays=== |
===Plays=== |
||
Revision as of 20:49, 20 August 2012
Kate Atkinson MBE (born 1951) is an English author.
She was born in York, and studied English Literature at the University of Dundee, gaining her Masters Degree in 1974. She subsequently studied for a doctorate in American Literature. She has often spoken publicly about the fact that she failed at the viva (oral examination) stage. After leaving university, she took on a variety of jobs from home help to legal secretary and teacher. She lived in Whitby, North Yorkshire, for a time, but now lives in Edinburgh.
Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year ahead of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh and Roy Jenkins's biography of William Ewart Gladstone. It went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller. Since then, she has published another five novels, one play, and one collection of short stories. Her work is often celebrated[by whom?] for its wit, wisdom and subtle characterisation, and the surprising twists and plot turns. Her most recent work has featured the popular former detective Jackson Brodie. She has frequently criticised the media's coverage of her work - when she won Whitbread, for example, it was the fact that she was a "single mother" who lived outside London that garnered the most attention.[citation needed]
In 2009, she donated the short story Lucky We Live Now to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Atkinson's story was published in the Earth collection.[1]
In March 2010, Atkinson appeared at the York Literature Festival, giving a world-premier reading from an early chapter from her forthcoming novel Started Early, Took My Dog, which is set mainly in the English city of Leeds.
Atkinson was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to literature.[2]
Published works
Novels
- Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995) Winner of the 1995 Whitbread Prize
- Human Croquet (1997)
- Emotionally Weird (2000)
- Featuring Jackson Brodie (former police inspector, now private investigator):[3]
- Case Histories (2004)
- One Good Turn (2006)
- When Will There Be Good News? (2008)
- Started Early, Took My Dog (2010)
- Life After Life (2013)
Plays
- Abandonment (2000)
Story collections
- Not the End of the World (2002)
Television adaptations
The first three Jackson Brodie novels have been adapted by other writers for the BBC under the series title Case Histories, featuring Jason Isaacs as Brodie.
Awards
- 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- 2009 Crime Thriller Award for The CWA Gold Dagger: When Will There Be Good News? (nominated)[4]
- 2009 British Book Awards, "Richard and Judy Bookclub Winner": When Will There Be Good News?
References
- ^ "Ox-Tales". Oxfam. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
- ^ "No. 59808". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=(help)). 11 June 2011. - ^ "Kate Atkinson". Fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
- ^ Allen, Kate (7 September 2009). "Coben, Cole, Atkinson vie for crime awards". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
External links
- Official website
- One Good Turn Reviews at Metacritic
- Kate Atkinson talking about One Good Turn at MeetTheAuthor.co.uk
- John Mullan talks to Kate Atkinson about Behind the Scenes at The Museum for The Guardian Book Club podcast.
- Template:Contemporary writers
- Kate Atkinson at the Internet Book List