British Author (1979-)
Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham in 1979. After reading English at the University of York, she went to the University of East Anglia to take an MA in Creative Writing, where she was taught by Andrew Motion and Paul Magrs. She began writing what was to be her first novel while on the course, and after graduating in 2002 moved back home to Solihull to live with her mother. She spent the next year completing the novel while working at her local Blockbuster, and sent sample chapters off to a number of literary agents, all of whom declined to represent her. She was on the verge of giving up on the idea of becoming a writer and looking for a proper job, when she received an email from an agent willing to take her on board. A month later she signed a book deal with Fourth Estate, and nine months after that Eve Green appeared in print.
Eve Green a coming of age story which featured an eight-year-old girl named Evie who starts a new life in rural Wales and discovers an old family secret. Fletcher has claimed that the book is not autobiographical in any way, although she has admitted that she drew inspiration from her own childhood pony trekking holidays in Wales. Praised by the judges for her "luminous quality of writing" it won the Whitbread First Novel Award for 2004 and later the Betty Trask Prize for 2005.
Susan Fletcher currently lives in Stratford-upon-Avon and is working on her second novel.
Bibliography
References
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,1404290,00.html
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/profile/?p=auth519D18CE02e1d1695DUmNkDB4B8E
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/R/richardandjudy/summer_read_05/summer_read_05_wk5.html