Julie Myerson

Julie Myerson (born June 2, 1960) is an English novelist and sometime critic, born in Nottingham. Her novels are usually quite dark in mood tending toward the supernatural. She studied English at Bristol University before working for the National Theatre. [ [http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth02C22M473212627080 Julie Myerson ] ]

She has written a column for "The Independent" about her domestic trials including her husband, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Jonathan Myerson, and their children Jacob, Chloe, and Raphael. More recently she has written a column for 'The Financial Times' about homes and houses.

Myerson is a regular reviewer on the UK arts programme, Newsnight Review, on BBC2.

Novels

* Sleepwalking 1994
* The Touch 1996
* Me and the Fat Man 1998
* Laura Blundy 2000
* Something Might Happen 2003
* The Story of You 2006
* Out of Breath 2007

Non-Fiction

* Home, The Story of Everyone Who Lived In Our House 2004
* Not A Games Person 2005

Her first novel was "Sleepwalking" (1994), and it was to some degree autobiographical, in that it deals with the suicide of an uncaring and abusive father. The main character Susan is heavily pregnant and begins an affair. She also feels she is haunted by his father's mother, reliving the neglect that made him abusive.

In "The Touch" (1996) a group of young people try to help a tramp who preaches fundamentalist Christianity, and who turns violently against them.

In "Me and the Fat Man" (1999) a waitress takes to earning extra money giving oral sex in a park, though not out of necessity; she gets involved with two other men, friends who have an awkward relationship and a secret between them that turns out to be related to her own birth.

"Laura Blundy" (2001) is set in the Victorian period, and Julie Myerson tries to bring out the freshness and modernity of the period as it would have appeared at the time.

"Something Might Happen" (2003) is about a murder in a Suffolk seaside town.

Awards¹

* 1994 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist) for "Sleepwalking"
* 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) for "Something Might Happen"
* 2005 WH Smith Literary Award (shortlist) for "Something Might Happen"

References

* ¹ from contemporary writers|id=02C22M473212627080