Autobiography

Having grown up with the old Foyles as my playground I have always loved books, and having spent much of my childhood in a boarding school where the weekly routine included the obligatory letter home, and my young adult life working overseas in the days before international telephone services were affordable, writing has always been part of my life.

When I mentioned to friends and colleagues that I was thinking of writing a memoir focused on my mother, they looked quizzical. Why would I bother switching genres after so many years writing successful fiction?

Jami Attenberg and Bernardine Evaristo have had somewhat disparate careers; Attenberg has become known for her particular brand of family novel, and Evaristo shot to immense stardom last year when her eighth book, Girl, Woman, Other, won the Booker prize.  Read more

Most of us write the first draft of our memoir chronologically, setting down what happened in order, or thematically, thinking of what happened and expanding from that time, place, or feeling. Both are terrific ways to generate a first draft.  Read more

It might seem that writers live pretty safe lives. Yes, there are some, mostly journalists, who immerse themselves in troubled and war-torn countries, and they can and do get hurt. But most of us who write sit at keyboards or notepads every day and create stuff - poems, plays, stories, essays-mostly from our heads.