Jane Harris (born 1961) is a British writer of fiction and screenplays. Her novels have been published in over 20 territories worldwide and translated into many different languages (see The Observations and Gillespie and I). Her most recent work is the novel ''Sugar Money'' which was shortlisted for several literary prizes. Harris was nominated for the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year (2007) and the Southbank Show/Times Breakthrough Award (2007), and was chosen as a

Waterstones Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...

Author of the Future, also in 2007.

Early life

Harris was born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, and spent her early childhood there before her parents moved in 1965 to

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. Upon leaving school, she studied English Literature and Drama at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, then trained as an actress at the

East 15 Acting School East 15 Acting School, sometimes known simply as East 15, is a drama school based in Essex, England. It provides vocational training in acting, specialist performance disciplines, theatre directing, stage management, and creative producing. Th ...

in London. At the end of the course, in order to obtain an Equity card from the actor's union, she formed a comedy trio called the Gumdrops, which was unsuccessful. After a few years of different jobs, such as a dishwasher, a waitress, a

chambermaid A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids a ...

and an English language teacher, began writing short stories while confined to her bed in Portugal with flu. On her return to Glasgow, several of her short stories were published in anthologies. In the early 1990s, she was a regular panelist on STV's ''Scottish Books'' program. She went on to obtain a Master's in

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, and then completed a PhD at the same university. She lists her literary influences as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Muriel Spark, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anne Tyler and Carol Shields. Harris is married to film and television director

Tom Shankland Thomas Otto Shankland (born 7 May 1968) is an English film and television director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the horror films '' WΔZ'' (2007) and '' The Children'' (2008), and television series such as '' The Fades'' (2011), '' ...

Career

After UEA, she completed a two-year stint as the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

Writer-in-Residence at

HM Prison Durham HM Prison Durham is a Georgian era reception Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison, located in the Elvet area of Durham, England, Durham in County Durham, England. Built in 1819, the prison is operated by Hi ...

(1992–4). Following this, Harris worked as both a script and novel reader, and a script editor for film companies and

The Literary Consultancy The Literary Consultancy (TLC) is a UK-based editorial consultancy service that was founded in 1996, becoming the first service of its kind to offer "professional, in-depth editorial advice and assessment to anyone writing in the English languag ...

. She also taught creative writing for many years, principally at the

. Harris's 2006 debut, ''The Observations'', was shortlisted for the

Orange 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 ...

2007. It was Waterstones book of the month and

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

's lead debut fiction title for spring 2006 (with its biggest ever initial print run for a first book). It was followed in 2011 by '' Gillespie and I'', then in 2017 by ''

Sugar Money Sugar Money may refer to: * Sugar Money (band), a band by Bo Bice, American Idol runner-up * Sugar Money (novel), a 2017 novel by Jane Harris {{dab ...

.'' ''Sugar Money'' was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Wilbur Smith Prize for Adventure Writing and the Historical Writers Association Gold Crown Prize. ''The Sunday Express'' wrote: "Pitches you headfirst into this outstanding, heartbreaking story of siblings, slavery and the savagery of the colonial past." A review in ''The Irish Times'' wrote "Through masterful detail, Harris shows the dehumanisation of the brothers and their fellow slaves . . . Beautifully cadenced."

Awards and shortlistings

''The Observations''

* Shortlisted for

Saltire Society Literary Awards Scotland's National Book Awards, formerly known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, are made annually by the Saltire Society. First awarded in 1937, they are awarded for books by Scottish authors or about Scotland, and are awarded in several ...

First Book of the Year 2006 *

Book of the Month (April 2006) * Won the

Book of the Month Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ch ...

First Fiction Prize (2007) * Shortlisted for the

(2007) * Shortlisted for a French

Prix du Premier Roman The Prix du Premier Roman (''First Novel Prize'') is a French literary prize awarded to an unpublished novelist between the ages of 18 and 30. The monetary reward is 3,000 Euros. The prize was first awarded in 1977. Starting with 1998 a separat ...

Etranger award in 2009 * Selected as one of

Richard and Judy Richard and Judy is a term used to refer to British television presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who are married. They co-hosted the ITV programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 to 2001 and later presented the chat show ''Richard & ...

's 100 Best Books of the Decade in 2011.

''Gillespie and I''

*Shortlisted for Popular Fiction Book of the Year in

Galaxy National Book Awards The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Na ...

UK (2011) *''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper voted it one of the 50 best reads for the summer (2011) *Longlisted for the

(2012)

''Sugar Money''

* Shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association Gold Crown Prize (2018) *Shortlisted for the

Walter Scott Prize The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is a British literary award founded in 2010.Walter S ...

(2018) *Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Prize for Adventure Writing (2018)Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation
Retrieved 2019-11-05

Short stories

Her short stories have received a number of prizes including the Penguin/''Observer'' Newspaper Short Story Award, 1993. She was awarded an Arts Council writer's grant in 2000. Harris has been published in a wide variety of anthologies and literary magazines including ''New Writing 3'', edited by

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

and Candice Rodd, and in several volumes of ''New Writing Scotland''. Her short story "Ascension" was commissioned for BBC Radio 3's ''The Verb''. Harris read the story when it was broadcast live from the Radio Theatre at

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

on 6 May 2011.

Screenplays

Harris has written a number of award-winning

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s, culminating in 2000 when ''Bait'' (funded by

Film4 Productions Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4 Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the UK. The company's first production was '' Walter'', directed by Stephen Frea ...

) was

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-nominated. The film won the Kodak Award and Best Short at the Newport Film Festival in the US. In 2001, ''Going Down'' (funded by

Working Title Films Working Title Films Limited, formerly Visionensure Limited and Working Title Limited, is a British film and television production company that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by ...

) was also nominated for a BAFTA and won prizes for Best Drama at the BBC Short Film Festival, Best Short at the Angers Film Festival and was runner-up in the Turner Classic Movie Awards. Harris was shortlisted in 1999 and 2000 for the BBC's

Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978) and '' The Singing Detective'' ...

Awards.

Radio

* "Ascension 1979", a specially commissioned short story, was read by Harris live on BBC Radio 3's ''The Verb'' in May 2011. * ''The Observations'' was adapted by Chris Dolan and dramatised on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

'' in April 2007. * ''Gillespie and I'' was adapted by Chris Dolan and dramatized on BBC Radio 4 in October 2013.

References

External links

Official Website

Once Upon A Life – ''The Observer'' magazine

Review by ''Sarah Gilmartin'' of ''Sugar Money'' in ''Irish Times''

* ttps://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/860244/Sugar-Money-Jane-Harris-book-review ''Sugar Money'' review in ''The Express''
''Jane Harris'' profile for Walter Scott Prize shortlist 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Jane 1961 births Living people Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of East Anglia Academics of the University of East Anglia 21st-century British novelists Scottish novelists Writers from Glasgow 21st-century British women writers Writers from Belfast