Author of nine novels, one work of non-fiction and five plays for radio.
12.00 noon BST
Goldster Book Club
Louise Doughty is the author of nine novels, one work of non-fiction and five plays for radio. Her most recent novel is Platform Seven (2019). The previous book, Black Water, (2016) was nominated as one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year and her seventh novel was the bestseller Apple Tree Yard (2013), which has been published or is being translated into thirty languages and adapted into a highly successful television series starring Emily Watson.
Louise was born in the East Midlands and grew up in Rutland, England’s smallest county, a rural area that later provided the setting for her third novel, Honey-Dew (1998). She attended Leeds University and the University of East Anglia, where she did the MA in Creative Writing course with Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter. It was her experiences as a temp secretary that provided the material for her first novel Crazy Paving (1995), a black comedy about accidents, Louise is a member of the Folio Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2019 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D.Litt) from the University of East Anglia. Of Apple Tree Yard, no less than Hilary Mantel said, “There can’t be a woman alive who hasn’t once realised, in a moment of panic, that she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man. Louise Doughty, more sure-footed with each novel, leads her unnerved reader into dark territory. A compelling and bravely written book."