Esther Freud
Esther Freud | |
|---|---|
 Freud in 2008 | |
| Born | 2 May 1963 London, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent |
|
| Family | Freud |
Esther Freud (born 2 May 1963) is a British novelist.
Early life and training[edit]
Born in London,[1] Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and painter Lucian Freud. She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud. She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, returning to London at 16 to train as an actress at The Drama Centre.
Career[edit]
She has worked in television and theatre as both actress and writer. Her first credited television appearance was as a terrified diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bomb scare. A year later she appeared as an alien in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen.[2] Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet.
She is also the author of The Wild, Gaglow, and The Sea House.[3] She also wrote the foreword for The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.
Freud was named as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta magazine in 1993.[3] Her novels have been translated into 13 languages.[3] She is also the co-founder (with Kitty Aldridge) of the women's theatre company Norfolk Broads.
In 2009, she donated the short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.[4] As of 2014 Freud taught at the Faber Academy.
Personal life[edit]
Freud has a sister, fashion designer Bella Freud, and a half-brother, Noah Woodman. Her uncle was politician Sir Clement Freud. She has two cousins in the media industry; public relations executive Matthew and broadcaster Emma.
She was married to actor David Morrissey, with whom she had three children, Albie, Anna and Gene Morrissey. They married in 2006.[5] They had separated by 2020, when Freud began living with a boyfriend.[6] Freud maintains homes in London and Walberswick near Southwold in Suffolk.
Freud's maternal grandparents were practising Irish Catholics but her mother was non-observant, while her father's Jewish family were atheists. She identifies herself as Jewish.[7][8][9]
Bibliography[edit]
 |
Novels[edit]
- Hideous Kinky (1992)
- Peerless Flats (1993)
- Gaglow (1997)
- The Wild (2000)
- The Sea House (2003)
- Love Falls (2007)
- Lucky Break (2010)
- Mr Mac and Me (2014)
- I Couldn't Love You More (2021)
Short fiction[edit]
- Stories
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desire | 2021 | Freud, Esther (27 September 2021). "Desire". The New Yorker. 97 (30): 72–78. |
Critical studies and reviews of Freud's work[edit]
- I couldn't love you more
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Alice O'Keeffe (31 August 2014). "Esther Freud: 'I realised the book I'd been writing for 18 months was awful'". The Guardian.
- ^ Freud, Esther (4 April 2009). "I was an alien in Dr Who". The Times. London. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
- ^ a b c British Council. "Esther Freud - British Council Literature". britishcouncil.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ Oxfam: Ox-Tales Archived 20 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Celebrity couple tie the knot in Suffolk". 14 August 2006.
- ^ Preston, Alex (29 May 2021). "Esther Freud: 'I didn't learn to read till I was about 10'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
- ^ "Interview: Esther Freud". The JC. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "The NS Interview: Bella Freud, designer and campaigner". The New Statesman. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Bernardine Freud obituary". The Guardian. August 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
External links[edit]
- "Esther Freud". Biography. Contemporary Writers. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "The Penguin Readers' Book of the Month". Author of the Month. Penguin. 27 October 2007. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1963 births
- Living people
- 20th-century British women writers
- 20th-century English novelists
- 21st-century British women writers
- 21st-century English novelists
- Actresses from London
- British people of German-Jewish descent
- British women novelists
- English Jews
- English people of Irish descent
- Freud family
- Jewish Austrian writers
- The New Yorker people
- Writers from London