Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell was born on 19th July 1968 in Middlesex Hospital in London's West End. Her father Anthony is a Textile Agent and her mother Kay is a secretary. She has two younger sisters, Sacha and Tanya.

A quiet, well-behaved kind of a girl, she excelled at nothing in particular at secondary school, shunning homework and revision in favour of John Peel, the NME and going to see obscure bands in grotty pubs. She left St Michael's with a frankly, quite miraculous, 6 O Levels and went off to study art and design at Barnet College for two years.  It was here that she discovered that she couldn't draw. In spite of this she went on to Epsom School of Art and Design to study Fashion Illustration and Promotion and after two years left to battle her way through the bitchy and unbelievably silly world of fashion.

After 5 years  it was quite a relief to be made redundant in 1993. Lisa made every attempt to break into another industry, but nobody else wanted her. Ten soul-destroying, rejection-ridden months later, her redundancy money ran out and she was forced to take a job as a receptionist. Unlikely as it sounds, this was to prove a turning point in her life. After 8 months, Lisa decided that her creative juices were drying up in a most worrying fashion, and embarked upon evening classes in Creative Writing at her local Adult Education College. Suddenly she was possessed.  After fifteen years of distractions and diversion, Lisa rediscovered her first love and her only talent – writing. The rest is history.
 

Lisa now lives in West Hampstead with her husband and their handsome but very stupid cat and writes books for a living.
 
Photograph © Stephen Simpson/FPG

If you like Lisa Jewell you might also like to read books by Jane Green, Fiona Neill and Daisy Waugh

After the Party Lisa Jewell Eleven years ago, Jem Catterick and Ralph McLeary fell in love. They thought it would be for ever, that they'd found their happy ending. Then two became four, a flat became a house. Romantic nights out became sleepless nights in.... Format: Paperback - Released: 14/04/2011 Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

Vince and Joy Lisa Jewell Underlying the comic writing and astute observations of this lovely book is a seam of sadness that made me ponder on how difficult it is to find the perfect partner and how life, as we bumble along, can so often... Format: Paperback (b Format) - Released: 04/08/2005 Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)