Joanne Harris
| Joanne Harris | |||
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Joanne Harris at King's Chapel during the Gibraltar International Literary Festival in 2013
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| Born |
3 July 1964 Barnsley, Yorkshire, England |
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| Occupation | writer | ||
| Nationality | English/French | ||
| Genre | literary fiction magic realism |
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| Notable works |
Chocolat Blackberry Wine Five Quarters of the Orange' Coastliners Holy Fools Gentlemen and Players The French Market The Lollipop Shoes Runemarks Blueeyedboy Runelight Peaches for Monsieur le Curé The Gospel of Loki |
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Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris, MBE (born 3 July 1964) is an English author, best known for her award-winning novel Chocolat which was later turned into a successful film. The film adaption was released in 2000, directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin and Johnny Depp. It was nominated for 8 BAFTAS and 5 Oscars.
Harris was born in Barnsley in Yorkshire, to an English father and a French mother. Her parents were both academics, teaching modern languages and literature at a local grammar school. Her first language was French which caused divisions between her English family, where no-one spoke French, and her French family, where no-one spoke English. Both families had turbulent histories and a tradition of strong women, kitchen gardening, storytelling, folklore and cookery.
Her writing began at an early age and was strongly influenced by Grimms' Fairy Tales and the tales of Charles Perrault, as well as local folklore and Norse mythology. She was educated at Wakefield Girls' High School, Barnsley Sixth Form College, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where she studied modern and medieval languages.
After a single, unsuccessful year as an accountant, which she describes as "like being trapped in a Terry Gilliam movie", she trained as a teacher at Sheffield University, and for fifteen years she taught modern languages, mostly at Leeds Grammar School, a boys' independent school in Yorkshire. She also taught at Sheffield University, lecturing on aspects of French literature and film. During this period, she worked on a number of book projects.
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