The Modern Novel

Biography

Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester in 1959 and adopted while still very young by two Pentecostal Evangelists and brought up in Accrington. She was brought up in a religious environment. When she was a teenager, her lesbianism led to an estrangement with her parents and she left home, working at various jobs, before going to Oxford University to study English. After university, she was involved in publishing and the Roundhouse Theatre. Her first novel was published in 1985 but it was not till it became a TV series in 1990 did she have much success. After initial critical acclaim, her bad behaviour, self promotion – she named herself as her favourite living author – and her outing of a former lover who was now married turned off many critics and resulted in poor relations between her and the press. However, she still garners critical acclaim for her work and writes for many newspapers and magazines.

Other links

Her own site
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
God’s gift to women (profile)
Jeanette Winterson (1959 – )
Jeanette Winterson at the Complete Review
Jeanette Winterson’s Enchanted Science (Ph. D. thesis)
Q&A: Jeanette Winterson
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Memory and Oblivion: The Historical Fiction of Rikki Ducornet, Jeanette Winterson and Susan Daitch