Emma Darwin is a novelist and short story writer. She was born in London and brought up there, with interludes in Manhattan and Brussels. After an education which involved a lot of history, a lot of reading and a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts, she worked in academic publishing for a while.
Despite being diverted into a photographic darkroom for a few years she wrote her way towards becoming a full-time writer. Her first novel The Mathematics of Love was published in 2006. It was short- and long-listed for various prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Best First Book, and translated into many languages. Her second novel, A Secret Alchemy, was published in November 2008 and reached the bestseller lists. Along the way she acquired first an MPhil and now a PhD in Creative Writing, enough novels in manuscript to prop up several table legs, and a Bridport and other prizes for her short stories.
Emma is also an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing for the Open University, and a senior editor with Writer's Workshop, and has appeared at numerous literary festivals. With all that going on she's rather forgotten what she does when she's not writing: living in London, there are more theatres and art galleries than is easy to keep up with, and even walking through the streets is a perennial pleasure. Given more time, holidays involve a camera and some ancient stone buildings or grand scenery.
Despite being diverted into a photographic darkroom for a few years she wrote her way towards becoming a full-time writer. Her first novel The Mathematics of Love was published in 2006. It was short- and long-listed for various prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Best First Book, and translated into many languages. Her second novel, A Secret Alchemy, was published in November 2008 and reached the bestseller lists. Along the way she acquired first an MPhil and now a PhD in Creative Writing, enough novels in manuscript to prop up several table legs, and a Bridport and other prizes for her short stories.
Emma is also an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing for the Open University, and a senior editor with Writer's Workshop, and has appeared at numerous literary festivals. With all that going on she's rather forgotten what she does when she's not writing: living in London, there are more theatres and art galleries than is easy to keep up with, and even walking through the streets is a perennial pleasure. Given more time, holidays involve a camera and some ancient stone buildings or grand scenery.
Non fiction show
Emma Darwin recommends
Mr Peacock's Possessions (2018)
Lydia Syson
"This tense, evocative, richly-imagined novel conjures the voices of a strange time and place, and makes them universal."
The Joyce Girl (2016)
Annabel Abbs
"Abbs has found a gripping and little-known story at the heart of one of the 20th century’s most astonishing creative moments, researched it deeply, and brought the extraordinary Joyce family and their circle in 1920s Paris to richly-imagined life."
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