Esther Freud

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. After her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. Her other books include The Sea House and Lucky Break, and her most recent, Mr Mac and Me, was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize and the East Anglian Book Awards. She contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines, and teaches creative writing for the Faber Academy. She first read Jane Eyre as a teenager, and although it remains one of her favourite novels, she accepts its influence over her early life wasn’t always healthy, especially when, as a lovelorn fourteen year old, she hung out of her window, convinced that someone, somewhere was calling to her.