Kate Atkinson
| Kate Atkinson | |
|---|---|
Atkinson signing books at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (August 2007)
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| Born |
20 December 1951 York, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | University of Dundee |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Children | Eve Worden |
| Website | |
| www |
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Kate Atkinson, MBE (born 20 December 1951) is an award-winning English writer. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in 1995 and, under its new name the Costa Book Awards, in 2013 and 2015 in the Novels category.
Atkinson was born in York, the daughter of a shopkeeper. She studied English literature at the University of Dundee, gaining her master's degree in 1974. Atkinson subsequently studied for a doctorate in American literature, entitled "The post-modern American short story in its historical context". She has often spoken publicly that she failed at the viva (oral examination) stage. After leaving the university, she took on a variety of jobs from home help to legal secretary and teacher.
Atkinson has been married twice, while a student to the father of her first daughter Eve, and subsequently to the father of her second daughter Helen.
Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year and went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller. Since then, she has published another nine novels, one play, and one collection of short stories. A series of four novels, starting with Case Histories, has featured the character of Jackson Brodie as a private investigator and former police inspector.
Her work is often celebrated for its wit, wisdom and subtle characterisation, and the surprising twists and plot turns. She has frequently criticised the media's coverage of her work – when she won the Whitbread award, for example, it was the fact that she was a "single mother" who lived outside London that received the most attention.
In 2009, she donated the short story "Lucky We Live Now" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Atkinson's story was published in the Earth collection.
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