- Amy Jenkins
Amy Jenkins (born 1966, in
London ) is an Englishnovelist andscreenwriter . She is the daughter of the late political journalist Peter Jenkins and the stepdaughter of "The Guardian " columnist and authorPolly Toynbee .After attending
Westminster School (which only admits young women to the sixth-form) she studied law atUniversity College London . Jenkins turned to writing and in 1996 achieved her first significant success with "This Life " aBBC television drama series about the lives and loves of a household of solicitors and barristers. She devised the series and wrote several episodes.Other film, television and journalism work followed and in 1998 she secured a two-novel contract, her first novel, "Honeymoon", appearing in 2000. Although it was the second biggest debut novel of the year, selling over 250,000 copies in the UK and Commonwealth, critics noted that a central plot device in Jenkins' work possessed a striking similarity to the premise of
Noel Coward 's playPrivate Lives . In "Honeymoon" a man and woman who seven years previously had a brief affair meet again when they find themselves staying in adjacent hotel rooms on their respective honeymoons; at the opening of Coward's play a divorced couple find themselves honeymooning in adjacent hotel rooms. Her second novel, "Funny Valentine", was published in 2002. She wrote and produced the feature film "Elephant Juice", released in 2000. She has directed three short films including the "Mr Cool" segment of "Tube Tales ""Honeymoon" was optioned by Columbia Pictures in 2000 and is currently in development with a script by
Jenny Bicks , who has previously written episodes of "Sex And The City " and "Men In Trees ". "Funny Valentine" was optioned in 2004 by the Australian producerJan Chapman , who produced "The Piano " and "Lantana."An anniversary special of "This Life" was broadcast on
BBC Two at 9pm onJanuary 2 ,2007 .In 2004 she married
Jonathan Heawood , Director of English PEN, and they have one son.Jenkins penned the biographical drama "Daphne", screened on BBC2 in 2007, celebrating the centenary of the birth of
Daphne du Maurier [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/14/nosplit/bvtv14last.xml] .External links
*imdb name|id=0420768|name=Amy Jenkins
* [http://www.literaturefestival.co.uk/2000/a_amy.htm Biography]
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