Scarlett Thomas
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Scarlett Thomas (born 5 July 1972 in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...
) is an English author who writes contemporary
postmodern fiction Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, and intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This style of experimen ...
. She has published ten novels, including '' The End of Mr. Y'' and '' PopCo'', as well as the ''Worldquake'' series of children's books, and ''Monkeys With Typewriters'', a book on how to unlock the power of storytelling. She is Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the
University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...
.


Biography

Thomas is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, Hylands School and a boarding school for eighteen months. During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War. She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the
University of East London University of East London (UEL) is a public university located in the London Borough of Newham, London, England, based at three campuses in Stratford, London, Stratford and London Docklands, Docklands, following the opening of University Squar ...
from 1992 to 1995. Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Her next three novels - ''Bright Young Things'' (2001), ''Going Out'' (2002), and ''PopCo'' (2004) - took her away from genre fiction, and she used them to "explore what it means to be trapped in a culture where your identity is defined by pop culture." Her next novel, 2006's ''The End of Mr. Y'' brought her a new level of success, and was sold in 22 countries. She followed this 4 years later with ''Our Tragic Universe,'' originally to be titled ''Death of the Author''. In writing her ninth novel, ''The Seed Collectors'',About Scarlett Thomas
/ref> her research included studying towards an MSc in
ethnobotany Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human socie ...
. Recently, Thomas started writing
children's fiction Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
, publishing ''Dragon's Green'' in 2017, the first in the ''Worldquake'' series. It was followed by ''The Chosen Ones'' in 2018 and ''Galloglass'' in 2019. She wrote about her experiences of writing children's fiction, including how much she enjoyed the
worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting (narrative), setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a k ...
. Away from writing fiction, she has taught Creative Writing at the
University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...
since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London. She reviews books for the ''
Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years b ...
'', the ''
Independent on Sunday ''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 publishe ...
'', and ''
Scotland on Sunday ''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by National World and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate ''The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in ...
''. She has also served as a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008) jury, along with Director
Iain Softley Iain Declan Softley (born 30 November 1956) is an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films include Backbeat (film), ''Backbeat,'' ''Hackers (film), Hackers, The Wings of the Dove (1997 film), The Wings of the Dove'', ''K-PAX ...
and presided over by actor
Danny Huston Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an American-British actor, director and screenwriter. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for ...
Thomas has stated previously was working on a book called ''41-0'' about her year of returning to tennis - she had stopped playing when she was 14 but took it up again in 2013 to see "how high hecould get in the rankings for erage." She placed in the Wimbledon Seniors in 2014. She channelled her athletic ability into running and walking, and tracked it via numerous apps, leading to a realisation she had been acting obsessively about her fitness, which she chronicled in ''
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 ...
'' in 2015 and was followed by, in her words, a breakdown. She shares with Ariel, the protagonist in ''The End of Mr. Y'', a wish to know everything:
"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."


Recognition

In 2001 Thomas was named by ''
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 ...
'' as one of 20 Best Young Writers.Tales of Scarlett woman (Edinburgh Evening News)
/ref> In 2002 she won Best New Writer in the
Elle Style Awards The Elle Style Awards are an awards ceremony hosted annually by ''Elle'' magazine. 2017 was the last year that they took place in the United Kingdom. List of award winners 2017 The 2017 edition of the Elle Style Awards took place on 13 February 2 ...
, and also featured as an author in
New Puritans The New Puritans was a literary movement ascribed to the contributors to a 2000 anthology of short stories entitled ''All Hail the New Puritans'', edited by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne. The project is said to have been inspired by the Dogme ...
, a project led by the novelists Matt Thorne and
Nicholas Blincoe Nicholas Blincoe (born 1965) is an English author, critic and screenwriter. He is the author of six novels: ''Acid Casuals'' (1995), ''Jello Salad'' (1997), ''Manchester Slingback'' (1998), ''The Dope Priest'' (1999), ''White Mice'' (2002), and ...
consisting of both a manifesto and an anthology of short stories.


Works


Novels

*''Dead Clever'' (1998) *''In Your Face'' (1999) *''Seaside'' (1999) *''Bright Young Things'' (2001) *''Going Out'' (2002) *'' PopCo'' (2004) *'' The End of Mr. Y'' (2006) *''Our Tragic Universe'' (2010) *''The Seed Collectors'' (2015) *''Oligarchy'' (2019) *


Children's Fiction

* ''Dragon’s Green'' (2017) * ''The Chosen Ones'' (2018) * ''Galloglass'' (2019) * ''Cosmic Dancers'' (2020) * ''The Great Oak: The Perfect Opportunity to Bring Parents and Their Children Together Any Time of Day'' (2021)


Short stories

* "Brother and Sister and Foot" - ''Curly Tales'' series, on Radio 4, August 2005 * "Interlude" - ''Product Magazine'', Winter 04-05 * "The Whole Country" - ''Zembla Magazine'', Summer 2004 * "Why My Grandmother Learned to Play the Flute" - ''Curly Tales'' series, on Radio 4, November 2003 * "The Old School Museum" - ''Big Night Out'', HarperCollins, 2002 * "Debbie’s Dreams" - ''The Stealth Corporation'' magazine, 2002 * "Goldfish" - ''Butterfly Magazine'', Issue 5, 2000 * "Mind Control" - ''All Hail the New Puritans'', 4th Estate, 2000 * "Five Easy Ways with Chilli" - 2008Mulberry Street blog about ''Five Easy Ways with Chilli''


Non-fiction

* ''Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories'' (2012) * ''41-Love: A Memoir'' (2022)


References


External links



in ''3am magazine''

of ''The End of Mr. Y'' in
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 ...

Book Review
of ''The End of Mr. Y'' in the
Dawn Newspaper ''Dawn'' is a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched in British India by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in Pakistan, and is widely considered the country's newspaper of record. ''Dawn'' is the f ...

Book Reviews
of ''PopCo'' *
The Author and The Text
', a lecture given by Scarlett Thomas at the
University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

2007 Interview
in Bookslut
Review of ''Our Tragic Universe''
in
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 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Scarlett Living people 1972 births 21st-century English novelists People from Hammersmith Writers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Alumni of the University of East London Academics of the University of Kent