28 September 2012 Jeanette Winterson’s autobiography out on the 23rd of October
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – these title words come from the author's adoptive mother, who fills the pages of the book with her presence like an omnipotent goddess. Jeanette Winterson’s latest book, an uncensored autobiography, may be her most personal and moving to date. The premiere is scheduled for the 23rd of October at the Conrad Festival.
A journey to the bottom of madness and back, which the author had to make in search of her biological mother; a story about growing up in an industrial town in a period of dramatic transformation; about the pursuit of happiness, about the books which saved her life and led her to Oxford University. The emotional impact of the book is staggering and makes the apparent lack of novelistic virtuosity seem a clever ploy.
Jeanette Winterson lives in the countryside on the outskirts of London. She writes novels, essays and literary criticism. The Polish REBIS publishing house has published some of her major works, such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, Lighthousekeeping, The Stone Gods and Art and Lies: A Piece for Three Voices and a Bawd. Her writing has won wide critical acclaim: in 1985, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit received the Whitbread Award for the best debut novel, two years later, The Passion won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Award, and again in 1989, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters honoured Sexing the Cherry with its E.M. Foster Award.
