Celia Brayfield (born 1945) is an English author, academic and cultural commentator.

Biography

Brayfield was born in the north

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

suburb of

Wembley Park Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross. The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broad ...

. She won a place at

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is a private day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in west London, England. The school is included in The Schools Index as one of the world's 150 best private schools and among top ...

in Hammersmith,

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

, and spent a year as a foreign student in France, at the Universitaire de Grenoble, studying French language and literature. She was a journalist for several years and published her first book in 1985. In 2023, she is a lecturer at

Bath Spa University Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, Somerset, Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshi ...

. Between 1988 and 2003 she was a trustee of

Gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger root, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly ...

. From 2013 to 2016 she was a trustee of the Friends of Watlington Library. She has one daughter and lives in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

Career

During her first career as a journalist, she specialized in media issues, with columns in the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' as well as contributions to many other newspapers and magazines. Following her childhood role model,

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

, Brayfield decided to begin her writing career as a journalist and joined ''Nova'' magazine as a trainee sub-editor. She progressed to ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' as assistant to the women's editor and moved to the ''Evening Standard''. She was hired as a media columnist by

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins FLSW (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust f ...

in 1974 and moved to ''The Times'' as a television critic in 1982. After the birth of her daughter Chloe in 1980, Brayfield decided to write a novel. Her

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

experience of celebrity culture led to her first book as sole author of ''Glitter: The Truth About Fame'', a non-fiction study commissioned by feminist editor Carmen Callil at

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...

. Shortly afterward, Callil commissioned Brayfield's first novel, ''Pearls''. Her novels have been optioned by film producers including Cruise-Wagner/Paramount. After the success of her first novel she focused on contemporary social comedies set in millennial London and its suburbs. She has taught at the Arvon Foundation and Tŷ Newydd and founded W4W, a writers' workshop in West London. Until 2003 she was co-founder and co-director of the National Academy of Writing, which was subsequently linked to the University of Central England. In 2005, she joined the staff of

Brunel University London Brunel University of London (BUL) is a Public university, public Research universities, research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian era, Victorian engineer and pione ...

to set up the creative writing program, becoming a reader in 2006 and an associate reader in 2015. She is also a senior lecturer at Bath Spa University and a member of the Higher Education Committee of the National Association of Writers in Education. Brayfield developed a growing interesting in how writers learn to write while doing the rounds of promotion tours and literary festivals. Audience questions led to a series of lectures which were the foundation for ''Bestseller: Secrets of Successful Writing'' commissioned by

Victoria Barnsley Victoria Barnsley (born 4 March 1954) is a British businesswoman and entrepreneur. In 1984, she co-founded the publishing house Fourth Estate after raising £80,000 from four backers via the Business Expansion Scheme, a scheme which provided ...

at Fourth Estate. Brayfield has judged several national literary awards, including the

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total at least , with normally one author receiving a larger prize amount ( ...

, the Macmillan Silver Pen Award and the Authors Club First Novel Prize. She served on the committee of management of

The Society of Authors ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

from 1995 to 1998.

Publications

Fiction *''Wild Weekend'', Time Warner Books, 2004 *''Mister Fabulous and Friends'', Time Warner Books, 2003 *''Heartswap'' Little, Brown, 2000, Time Warner Books 2001 *''Sunset'', Little, Brown, 1999, Warner Books 2000. *''Getting Home'' Little, Brown & Warner Books *''Harvest'' Viking 1995, Penguin 1996, Warner Books 1996 *''White Ice'' Viking 1993, Penguin 1994 *''The Princess'' Fanfare 1992 *''The Prince'' Chatto & Windus 1990, Penguin, 1991 *''Pearls'' Chatto & Windus 1987, Penguin 1986, Warner Books 1997 Non-fiction *''Writing Black Beauty'' Pegasus Books 2023 *''Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists'' Bloomsbury Caravel 2021Bloomsbury website
/ref> *''Writing Historical Fiction'' with Duncan Sprott, Bloomsbury Academic 2014 *''Arts Reviews'' Kamera Books, 2008 *''Deep France'' Pan Macmillan, 2004 *''Bestseller: Secrets of Successful Writing'' Fourth Estate, 1996 *''Glitter: The Truth About Fame'' Chatto & Windus, 1985 Academic *''New Writing'' international peer-reviewed journal of Creative Writing, Special Edition, Routledge, 2010 Celia co-edited, with Professor Graeme Harper and Dr Andrew Green, a special edition of ''New Writing'', a leading international peer-reviewed journal for Creative Writing, dedicated to staff and students of the Brunel Creative Writing Program. Her own papers included in the edition: ''Creative Writing: the FAQ'' and ''Babelfish Babylon''. Journalism *''Fancy food is enough to turn your stomach'' The Times, 23 December 2009 *''The Times Christmas Books:'' Travel the Times, 28 November 2009 *''Bombay Sapphires: The Immortals by Amit Chaudhuri'' The Times, Saturday 14 March 2009 *''The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk'' The Times, 30 January 2009 *'' In Search of a Feeling for Snow: The Times Christmas Books 2008: Travel'' The Times, 28 November 2008 *''Horticultural Who's Who: Abderrazak Benchaabane'' BBC Gardens Illustrated July 2008 *''It's not hard to say goodbye (to the hardback book)'' The Times, 21 November 2007 *''A Faraway Look in their Eyes'' (travel writing) The Times, 6 December 2007 *''Rhett Butler's People'' by Donald McCaig The Times, 2 November 2007 *''Farewell to Harry (and the bean-counters)'' The Times, 21 July 2007 *''Get your kicks on Route 312'' The Times, 30 June 2007 *''It is a truth universally.... oh give it a rest, will you (Austen adaptations)'' The Times, 12 March 2007 *''Roll up, roll up and watch the Mona Lisa weep'' The Times, 19 February 2007 *''Taking On Goliath: L'Oréal Took My Home'' by Monica Waitzfelder The New Statesman, 19 February 2007 *''Required Reading: Shadow of the Silk Road'' Colin Thubron The Times, 9 September 2006 *''The Lion, the Witch and the Inklings'' The Times, 22 November 2005 *''I’m a Different Person Now: Serious Head Injury'' (interview), The Times, 9 July 2005. *''Far Far Better Things'' The Times, 2 July 2005 *''So Your Cat Died'' (exam marking) The Times, 9 May 2005 *''The Discerning Woman Isn't Easy to Please'' (launch of Easy Living magazine) The Times, T2 cover story, 2 March 2005. *''Brits tame the wild frontiers: one in three wants to emigrate, but the expats will still write home for marmalade'' The New Statesman 14 June 2004

References

External links

www.fantasticfiction.co.ukjournalisted.comwww.brunel.ac.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brayfield, Celia English women novelists 1945 births Living people People educated at St Paul's Girls' School Writers from the London Borough of Brent Academics of Brunel University London