Frances Vernon (1 December 1963 – 11 July 1991) was a British novelist. She was the daughter of the tenth

Baron Vernon Baron Vernon, of Kinderton in the County of Chester, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1762 for the former Member of Parliament George Venables-Vernon. He had previously represented Lichfield and Derby in the House ...

Novels

Vernon was encouraged in her writing by her first cousin, the photographer and author Michael Marten. She wrote her

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

''Privileged Children'' (1982) at the age of sixteen. It won the

Author's Club First Novel Award The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented. ...

. She studied briefly at New Hall,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

(now

Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954 as New Hall. In 2008, following a donation of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, it was renamed Murray Edwa ...

) but soon left to continue her writing. She produced five more novels: ''Gentlemen and Players'' (1984), ''The Bohemian Girl'' (1985), ''A Desirable Husband'' (1987), ''The Marquis of Westmarch'' (1989) and finally '' The Fall of Doctor Onslow'' (1994), which was published three years after her death. Lucasta Miller for the Independent described it as "both a tragic reminder of what she might have gone on to do, and a testimony to what she did achieve".

Depression and suicide

Vernon suffered from depression, which worsened towards the end of her life. She was seeing a psychotherapist for about five years before her death. She suffered in particular from a fear of travelling. Vernon committed suicide on 11 July 1991. She had promised her psychiatrist not to use the pills he had prescribed her for her depression but instead used her own "herbal" concoction.Preface to ''Privileged Children'', p. xix.

Notes

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Frances 1963 births English women novelists Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 1991 suicides 1991 deaths