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Jennifer Johnston (born 12 January 1930) is an Irish novelist. She has won a number of awards, including the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979 and a Lifetime Achievement from the Irish Book Awards (2012). The Old Jest, a novel about the Irish War of Independence, was later made into a film called The Dawning, starring Anthony Hopkins, produced by Sarah Lawson and directed by Robert Knights.[1]
Jennifer Johnston | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 January 1930 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
| Relatives |
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She was born in Dublin to Irish actress and director Shelah Richards and Irish playwright Denis Johnston.[2] A cousin of actress and film star Geraldine Fitzgerald, via Fitzgerald's mother, Edith (née Richards), Jennifer Johnston was educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1965 with a degree in ancient and modern literature.[3][4] For decades, she lived in Derry, and currently lives near Dublin.[5] Other cousins include the actresses Tara Fitzgerald and Susan Fitzgerald.[6][7]
Johnston was born into the Church of Ireland and many of her novels deal with the fading of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy in the 20th century. She married a fellow student at Trinity College, Ian Smyth, in 1951.[8] Johnston is a member of Aosdána.[9]
- 2012 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award[10]
- 2006 Irish PEN Award
- 2001 Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin[11]
- 1989 Giles Cooper Awards for O Ananias, Azarias and Misael
- 1979 Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979
- 1977 Booker Prize shortlist for Shadows on our Skin
- 1973 Authors' Club First Novel Award for The Captains and the Kings
- Novels
- The Captains and the Kings (1972), winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award
- The Gates (1973)
- How Many Miles to Babylon? (1974)
- Shadows on Our Skin (1977), shortlisted for the Booker Prize
- The Old Jest (1979), winner of a Whitbread Book Award for 1979
- The Nightingale and Not the Lark (1980)
- The Christmas Tree (1981)
- The Railway Station Man (1984)
- Fool's Sanctuary (1987)
- The Invisible Worm (1991)
- The Illusionist (1995)
- Three Monologues: "Twinkletoes", "Mustn't Forget High Noon", "Christine" (1995)
- The Desert Lullaby (1996)
- Finbar's Hotel, edited by Dermot Bolger (1997) (Contributor)
- Two Moons (1998)
- The Essential Jennifer Johnston (1999) (contains The Captains and the Kings, The Railway Station Man, and Fool's Sanctuary)
- Great Irish Stories of Murder and Mystery (2000) (Contributor)
- The Gingerbread Woman (2000)
- Mondschatten (2000)
- This is not a Novel (2002)
- Grace and Truth (2005)
- Foolish Mortals (2007)
- Truth or Fiction (2009)
- Shadowstory (2011)
- Fathers and Son (2012)
- A Sixpenny Song (2013)
- Naming the Stars (2015)
- Plays
- The Nightingale and Not the Lark (1981)
- Indian Summer (1983)
- Andante un Poco Mosso, in The Best Short Plays 1983 (1983)
- The Porch (1986)
- The Desert Lullaby: A Play in Two Acts (1996)
- The Christmas Tree: A Play in Two Acts (2015)
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