Francesca Segal (born 1980) is a British author and journalist. She is best known for her debut novel, ''The Innocents'' (2012), which won several book awards.

Life and career

She was raised in a Jewish community in northwest London where she still lives today. She is the daughter of American author,

Erich Segal Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classicist who wrote the bestselling novel '' Love Story'' (1970) and its film adaptation. Early life and education Born and raised in a Jew ...

. Segal studied at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

before becoming an author and journalist. Her writing has been published in many places including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', American ''Vogue'', British ''Vogue'', ''

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'' ...

'', and the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''. Her first novel, ''The Innocents'' was published in 2012 and is based in a Jewish community, similar to the one in which she grew up in. It won several awards and was also longlisted for the 2013

Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–2012), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017) is one of the United Kingdom's ...

. Segal's second novel, ''The Awkward Age'' was published in May 2017. Her third book, ''Mother Ship'', is a memoir released in June 2019. It follows Segal in the aftermath of the

premature birth Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 weeks, very early preterm birth is betwee ...

of her twin daughters and their time spent in hospital.

Awards

Biblio

Novels

* ''The Innocents'' (2012) * ''The Awkward Age'' (2017)

Memoir

* ''Mother Ship'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Francesca 1980 births Living people Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford English people of American-Jewish descent English people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent English women novelists Jewish English writers Novelists from London 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British women writers 21st-century British Jews