Joanne Harris
British author (born 1964) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris OBE FRSL (born 3 July 1964) is a British author, best known for her 1999 novel Chocolat, which was adapted into a film of the same name.
Joanne Harris | |
|---|---|
Harris in 2020 | |
| Born | 3 July 1964 Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Pen name | Joanne M. Harris |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
| Genre | Literary fiction Magic realism Fantasy Psychological thriller |
| Notable works | Chocolat Blackberry Wine Five Quarters of the Orange Gentlemen & Players |
| Spouse |
Kevin Harris (m. 1988) |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Early life
Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to an English father and a French mother,[1] and lived above her grandparents' corner sweet shop until the age of three.[2][3] Harris's mother did not speak English when she married, and so Harris spoke only French until she started school.[4] Both her parents taught French at Barnsley Girls' High School.[5] Harris attended Wakefield Girls' High School and Barnsley Sixth Form College.[6] She studied modern and mediaeval languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.[7] She met her husband Kevin when they were both students at Barnsley Sixth Form College.[8]
Growing up, Harris was influenced by Norse mythology,[9] classic adventure stories including Jules Verne and Rider Haggard,[10] and the work of Shirley Jackson,[11] Ray Bradbury, Mervyn Peake and Emily Brontë.[12]
Literary career
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After a year as an accountant, which she later described as "like being trapped in a Terry Gilliam film",[13] Harris trained as a teacher at the University of Sheffield, and for 15 years she taught modern languages, mostly at the independent Leeds Grammar School, and later taught French literature at the University of Sheffield.[14][15] While she was a teacher, she published the horror/gothic novels The Evil Seed and Sleep, Pale Sister,[16]as well as Chocolat,[17] a literary novel set in a French village, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, and which allowed Harris to give up teaching to write full-time.[18]
Following the success in 2000 of the motion picture Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, with a screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs,[19] the book sold more than a million copies, making Harris one of only four women to have sold more than a million copies of a single book in the UK.[20][21]
Harris wrote three further novels in the Chocolat series: The Lollipop Shoes (titled The Girl With No Shadow in the US), Peaches for Monsieur le Curé (Peaches for Father Francis in the US), and The Strawberry Thief,[22] as well as three French cookbooks (co-written with Fran Warde).[23]
Chocolat was followed by the novels Blackberry Wine (2000) and Five Quarters of the Orange (2001), described by The Guardian as "quirky, sensuous books set in the French countryside, in which food dominates events as a token of love, a bargaining chip, a gesture of defiance".[24] They were followed by Coastliners in 2002[25] and Holy Fools in 2003,[25] both of which are set on the fictional French island of Le Devin.[26][27]
In 2007, Harris published Runemarks, a fantasy novel based on Norse mythology. The sequels, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki and The Testament of Loki followed between 2011 and 2017. Harris' fantasy novels and novellas were published under the name Joanne M. Harris to distinguish them from her other work.[28]
In 2006, Harris published Gentlemen and Players, a psychological thriller set in the fictional boys' grammar school of St Oswald's, inspired by her time as a teacher.[4] This was followed by two more St Oswald's books, Different Class and A Narrow Door, alongside two more psychological thrillers, Blueeyedboy and Broken Light,[29] all set in the fictional town of Malbry, inspired by the Yorkshire village of Almondbury.[30][31]
Harris has also published three novellas, A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road, and Orfeia, loosely based on Child Ballads and illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, as well as two collections of short stories and numerous contributions to various charitable anthologies. In 2021, she published Honeycomb, a collection of original fairytales forming a mosaic novel,[32] illustrated by Charles Vess.[33] She has also published a Doctor Who novella, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller.[34][35]
In 2024, Orion Books announced plans to bring out a prequel to Chocolat, entitled Vianne, due to be published in 2025.[36]
Harris's books have now been published in more than 50 languages.[37]
Journalism
Harris writes regularly for the press, and has written multiple travel pieces for The Telegraph,[38] The Guardian,[39] The Independent[40] and The Times,[41] as well as articles on more literary themes.[42] In 2017 she won a Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Award for an article on memory and scent, published in Good Housekeeping.[43]
Themes
Repeated themes in Harris' books include: food as a means of understanding character;[44] the dynamic between feasting and fasting; motherhood and the patriarchy;[45] tensions within communities; outsiders and outcasts;[46] religious intolerance and "the magic of everyday things".[47][48]
Many of Harris' books are about women who challenge the status quo and the way in which women are perceived in society.[49] Harris also regularly uses folklore and myth in her novels, giving a modern, original spin to traditional stories.[50]
Reception
The books have been praised for their multi-layered storytelling, use of culinary metaphors[51] and arresting plot twists.[52] The Guardian describes Harris's books as "astringent, highly original and often subtly fantastic mainstream novels".[53] The Irish Times says: "The Chocolat novels are poignant literary explorations of universal themes of pleasure and denial, the dangers of dogma, xenophobia and racism and the enduring power of love and understanding to eradicate the traumas of the past,"[54] with a Locus review calling Harris "exceedingly gifted at producing vivid imagery".[55] Critics have remarked on her skill at "foreshadowing impending doom" and "unerring eye for school life".[56] Some reviewers have questioned the plausibility of some of the plot twists, while acknowledging the compulsive nature of the read.[57][58]
Other activities
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Music
Harris has been involved in a number of musical projects, including collaborating with Lucie Treacher and the Tête à Tête Opera Festival to create two mini-operas,[59][60] performing with the Storytime Band[61] and building a stage show based on her work,[62][63] and co-writing and developing an original stage musical, Stunners, with Howard Goodall.[64][65] In 2018 she and the Storytime Band were guests on the Christmas special of The Verb.[66]
Prize Judging
She has judged the Orange (Women's) Prize,[67] the Whitbread Prize,[68] the Desmond Elliott Prize,[69] the Betty Trask Prize,[70] the Primadonna Prize,[71] the Comedy Women in Print[72] Award and the Winton Prize for Science Books.[73] In 2024 Harris was announced[74] as the chief judge of the new Entente Littéraire Prize for French and UK Young Adult novels, a joint initiative of Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron, sponsored by the Royal Society of Literature.[75]
Media
Harris is a regular guest on radio and TV, appearing on Woman's Hour,[76] A Good Read,[77] Front Row,[78] The Verb,[66] The Wright Stuff,[79] Question Time, [80][81] Loose Ends,[82]With Great Pleasure,[83] Saturday Live,[84] In Tune,[85] and the Today programme.[86] In 2008 she appeared in the TV miniseries The Worlds of Fantasy.[87] She appeared in two episodes of the TV series Inside Out: one in 2009 investigating the "real story" behind the death of Charlotte Bronte,[88] the other 2010 on the topic of faith schools.[89] In 2011 she featured in the episode The Villain of the four-part TV series Faulks On Fiction alongside Sebastian Faulks.[90] In 2016 she appeared in one episode of Christmas University Challenge.[91]
She is active on social media, and in 2016 was nominated for a Shorty Award for her contributions.[92]
In 2021, Harris was a guest on BBC's Desert Island Discs, where her chosen book was the collected works of Victor Hugo, her luxury was her own shed, and the record she "would save from the waves" was Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now".[23]
Charity work
Harris is a patron of the charities Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), to which she donated the proceeds of her cookery books,[93] and Plan UK. In 2009 she travelled to the Congo to report on MSF's work there,[94][95]spending three weeks with aid workers in the danger zones to write an article on MSF's sleeping sickness programme.[96][97]
In 2012 she travelled to several villages in Togo as part of their Because I Am a Girl project, later writing the short story Road Song based on her experiences.[98]
Activism
Harris was chair of the management committee of the Society of Authors for two terms from 2020 to 2024,[99][100] being unanimously re-elected to the position in March 2022.[101] She assisted in several SOA campaigns, including calling for more investment in libraries and the arts,[102] calling for translators to have their names on the cover of books, and raising awareness on author pay and conditions.[103][104] In 2022 she appeared on the Bookseller's list of the 150 most influential people in publishing.[105]
She has also campaigned against library closures,[106] has called for literary festivals to pay contributors,[107][108] has spoken out in favour of trigger warnings in books[109] and has spoken out against sexism in publishing[110] and the gendering of children's books.[111][112] In 2015, Harris launched a protest against the Clean Reader app, which had been designed to replace profanities in books with "clean" alternatives, calling it "censorship, not by the state, but by a religious minority". This campaign, which was supported by many other authors, including Chuck Wendig, Charles Stross and Margaret Atwood, led to the speedy removal of the app.[113]
In 2022 a members' vote was raised calling for Harris to stand down as chair of the SOA, in relation to the society's stance on protecting free speech.[114][115] The motion was defeated, with 81% voting against.[116]
Harris became a member of the Board of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society in 2019,[117] and was re-elected in 2021.[118] During this time she campaigned against the unregulated use of generative AI,[119] called for "an industry-wide standard to be introduced" for festivals to pay their contributors,[120] campaigned for a wider awareness of copyright issues[121] and the importance of fair pay for authors.[122] She stepped down from the post in 2024, having served two terms.[123]
In 2025 she signed an open letter alongside Richard Osman, Kate Mosse and Val McDermid, calling for the UK government "to hold Meta accountable over its use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence."[124]
Honours and awards
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Harris is the holder of honorary doctorates in literature from the University of Huddersfield and the University of Sheffield, and is an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.[125]
Harris was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to literature.[126]
In 2022, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[127][125]
In 2022, Harris was also named PinkNews's "Ally of the Year".[128][129]
Notable literary awards
- Chocolat (2001): Shortlisted: Whitbread Novel of the Year Award (2000); winner, USC Scripter Awards (2001); Whitaker Gold Award (2001); Whitaker Platinum Award (2012).
- Blackberry Wine: Whitaker Gold Award (2002); winner: Salon Du Livre Gourmand (Gourmand Awards): International category: Drinks Literature (2000).[130]
- Five Quarters of the Orange: Shortlisted: Popular Fiction category WH Smith Literary Award 2002.[131]
- Winner: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy, 2002)[132][133]
- The French Kitchen (with Fran Warde): 2005 Winner of the Golden Ladle for Best Soft Cover Recipe Book Over US$25 in Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards.[134]
- Gentlemen & Players: Shortlisted for the Edgar Award Best Novel, 2007 (USA)[135] and the Grand Prix du Polar de Cognac (France).[136]
- Flavours of Childhood (co-written for the BBC Radio 4 series First Taste with poet Sean O'Brien): Winner of the Glenfiddich Award Food and Drink Award for broadcasting, 2006.[137]
- The Gospel of Loki: Finalist of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, 2015.[138]
- Every Scent Tells a Tale (a piece written for Good Housekeeping): Winner of Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Award (Literary Category), 2017.[43]
- A Pocketful of Crows: Shortlisted for 2018 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella.[139]
Personal life
Harris lives in Yorkshire with her husband Kevin, and has a son.[140] She works from a shed in her garden.[141]
Harris was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, and discussed the diagnosis and her ongoing treatment on social media and at the Hay Festival.[142] In 2023, she was declared cancer-free, and wrote in The Guardian that the experience had made her reassess her priorities and had given her back her voice.[143]
She has stated that she has a form of synaesthesia "in which colours in bright light trigger scents". She also suffers from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in winter.[144]
Publications
Gothic novels
- The Evil Seed. Little, Brown. 1992. ISBN 0552775045.
- Sleep, Pale Sister. Random House. 1994. ISBN 9780099270515.
Chocolat series
- Chocolat. Doubleday. 1999. ISBN 978-0385602983.
- The Lollipop Shoes. Black Swan. 2007. ISBN 978-0385609487. (US title: The Girl With No Shadow, April 2008)
- Peaches for Monsieur le Curé. Black Swan. 2012. ISBN 978-0385619219. (US title: Peaches for Father Francis)
- The Strawberry Thief. Orion. 2019. ISBN 978-1409170754.
Books set in France
- Blackberry Wine. Black Swan. 2000. ISBN 0552998001.
- Five Quarters of the Orange. Black Swan. 2001. ISBN 0060958022.
- Coastliners. Black Swan. 2002. ISBN 0552998850.
- Holy Fools. Black Swan. 2003. ISBN 0552770019.
Cookery books (with Fran Warde)
- The French Kitchen. Doubleday. 2002. ISBN 0385604769.
- The French Market. Doubleday. 2005. ISBN 0385608233.
- The Little Book of Chocolat. Doubleday. 2014. ISBN 978-0857522009.
Short story collections
- Jigs & Reels. Doubleday. 2004. ISBN 0385606427.
- A Cat, a Hat, and a Piece of String. Doubleday. 2012. ISBN 978-0857521194.
Malbry series
- Gentlemen and Players. Doubleday. 3 January 2006. ISBN 0060559144. (2005)
- Different Class. Doubleday. 2016. ISBN 978-0385619233. (2016)
- A Narrow Door. Orion. 2021. ISBN 978-1409170815. (2021)
- Blueeyedboy. Doubleday. 2010. ISBN 978-0385609500. (2010)
- Broken Light. Orion. 2023. ISBN 9781398710825.
Rune series
- Runemarks. Doubleday. 2008. ISBN 978-0375844447. (2007 in the UK, 2008 in the US) as Joanne M. Harris
- Runelight. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473217089. (September 2011 in the UK) as Joanne M. Harris
- The Gospel of Loki. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473202351. (February 2014), as Joanne M. Harris
- The Testament of Loki. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473202399. (2018) (as Joanne M. Harris)
Novellas
- The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller. BBC Digital. ASIN B00N3Q0U4O. (October 2014). Doctor Who novella.
- A Pocketful of Crows. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473222182.(2017) a folklore-inspired novella (as Joanne M. Harris), illustrated by Bonnie Hawkins.
- The Blue Salt Road. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473222212. (2018) (as Joanne M. Harris). Illustrated by Bonnie Hawkins.
- Orfeia. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473229952. (2020) (as Joanne M. Harris). Illustrated by Bonnie Hawkins.
On writing
- Ten Things About Writing. September. ISBN 978-1912836598. (2020) a self-help book for writers. Illustrated by Moose Alain.
Fantasy and science fiction
- Honeycomb. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1473213999. (2021) (as Joanne M. Harris). Illustrated by Charles Vess.
- Maiden, Mother, Crone. Gollancz. 13 February 2024. ISBN 978-1399614009. (2023). Omnibus edition of three folklore-inspired novellas (A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road and Orfeia), plus additional stories. Illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins.
- The Moonlight Market. Hachette. 2024. ISBN 9781399604772.
Stories in anthologies
- Magic:New Stories. Bloomsbury. 2002. ISBN 978-1869415846. A collection of stories in aid of Piggybank Kids.Edited by J.K. Rowling.
- Bosom Buddies. Black Swan. 2003. ISBN 978-1869415846. A collection of stories in aid of Breast Cancer UK.
- Journey to the Sea. Ebury Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0091900694.A collection of stories in aid of Piggybank Kids.
- Mums: A Celebration of Motherhood. Ebury Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0091922627. A collection of stories in aid of Piggybank Kids.
- Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood. Ebury Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0091922627. A collection in aid of Piggybank Kids.
- In Bed With... Sphere. 2009. ISBN 978-0751539189. A collection of erotic stories by well-known female writers.
- Because I am a Girl. Vintage. 2010. ISBN 978-0099535928. Charity anthology in aid of Plan UK.
- Stories. Headline. 2010. ISBN 978-0755336609. A collection of fantasy tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio.
- Writing on the Edge. Rizzoli International. 2010. ISBN 978-0847832910.A collection of eyewitness accounts by well-known authors of extreme conditions and war-torn locations. In aid of MSF.
- Why Willows Weep. Indiebooks. 2011. ISBN 978-1908041012.Charity anthology in aid of the Woodland Trust.
- Beacons. OneWorld Publications. 2013. ISBN 978-1851689699. Charity anthology in aid of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.
- Fearie Tales. Jo Fletcher Books. 2014. ISBN 978-1848663466.
- That Glimpse of Truth – the 100 Finest Short Stories Ever Written. Head of Zeus. 2015. ISBN 978-1784972127. Edited by David Miller.
- Time Trips. BBC Digital. 2015. ASIN B00N3Q0U4O.A collection of Doctor Who stories by various authors, including the Harris novella The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller.
- Twice Cursed. Titan Books. 2023. ISBN 978-1803361215. An anthology of stories on the subject of curses, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane.
Audiobooks narrated by Joanne Harris
- Chocolat. Orion Publishing Group. 2018. ASIN B0798WQK7M.
- Blackberry Wine. Orion Publishing Group. 2023. ASIN B0CFVJ4QQ8.
- Five Quarters of the Orange. Orion Publishing Group. 2023. ASIN B0CFRCPNPW.
- Coastliners. Orion Publishing Group. 2023. ASIN B0C3DH5QZM.
- A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String. Orion Publishing Group. 2012. ASIN B00A3VQFUK.
- Jigs and Reels. Orion Publishing Group. 2023. ASIN B0C3DK58SH.
- Ten Things About Writing. WF Howes Ltd. 2020. ASIN B08PC72XNB.
- The Strawberry Thief. Orion Publishing Group. 2019. ASIN B07GX152HJ.
- The Moonlight Market. Orion Publishing Group. 2024. ASIN B0CNKV2R4W.
- Honeycomb. Orion Publishing Group. 2021. ASIN B08T1MLK2C.
- A Pocketful of Crows. Orion Publishing Group. 2017. ASIN B072YMHHGW.
- Orfeia. Orion Publishing Group. 2020. ASIN B0883F2CK3.
References
External links
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