Melanie McGrath is a

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

-born English non-fiction writer and crime novelist.

Early life

Born in

, McGrath's parents moved several times during her childhood; to

Basildon Basildon ( ) is a town in Borough of Basildon, the borough of the same name, in the county of Essex, England. It had a recorded population of 115,955 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. In 1931, the town had a population of 1,159. ...

in Essex, then to a village in Germany, to Kent, then north to Lancashire, and south again to Buckinghamshire. She studied

Philosophy, Politics and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Career

She won the

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kin ...

in 1995 for her non fiction book ''Motel Nirvana'', which examined the

New Age movement New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consid ...

, and detailed McGrath's travels around the American states of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

.Booktrust - John Llewellyn Prize archive
Her other non-fiction books have explored the "

Information Age The Information Age is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on information technology ...

" (''Hard, Soft and Wet''), 20th century British social history, (''Hopping'' and ''Silvertown'') and the non-fiction book, ''The Long Exile'' about the High Arctic relocation. In recent years McGrath has written crime novels, including a trilogy set in the Arctic with Inuit detective Edie Kiglatuk, and the standalone thriller ''Give Me the Child''. As a book reviewer and travel writer, she has written for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', ''

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 ...

'' and ''

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 ...

'' among other publications. McGrath has taught

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 universities of

Roehampton University The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The University traces its r ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

as well as at The Arvon Foundation. McGrath lives in London and on the Kent coast.

Bibliography

Non fiction

*1996 - ''Motel Nirvana'' Flamingo *1998 - ''Hard, Soft and Wet'' Flamingo *2002 - ''Silvertown'', Fourth Estate *2006 - ''The Long Exile'', Fourth Estate *2009 - ''Hopping'', Fourth Estate *2018 - ''Pie & Mash down the Roman Road'', Two Roads

Crime fiction

Edie Kiglatuk trilogy *2011 - ''White Heat'', Mantle (as M.J. McGrath) *2012 - ''The Boy in the Snow'', Mantle (as M.J. McGrath) *2014 - ''The Bone Seeker'', Fourth Estate (as M.J. McGrath) Standalone *2017 - ''Give Me the Child'', HarperCollins (as Mel McGrath) *2019 - ''The Guilty Party'', HarperCollin (as Mel McGrath)

References

External links

Official site
Living people English non-fiction writers English crime fiction writers English journalists English women journalists English travel writers English women travel writers English literary critics British women literary critics John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners Alumni of the University of Oxford Writers from the London Borough of Havering People from Romford Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-writer-stub