Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson

Author

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester and raised in Lancashire, by adoptive parents. She was raised in the Elim Pentecostal Church and, intending to become a Pentecostal Christian Missionary she began evangelising and writing sermons at age six. By age 16 Winterson left home. She soon after read for a degree in English at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

After moving to London, her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published when she was 24 years old. It won the 1985 Whitbread Black for a First Novel, and was adapted  by Winterson in 1990, which in turn won the BAFTA Award for Best Drama. She won the 1987 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for The Passion.

Winterson’s subsequent novels explore the boundaries of physicality and the imagination, gender polarities, and sexual identities, and have won several literary awards. Her most recent novel, Frankissstein: A Love Story was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize.

Her stage adaptation of The PowerBook in 2002 opened at the Royal National Theatre, London. She also bought a house in Spitalfields  east London, which she refurbished into a flat as a pied-a-terre and a ground-floor shop, Verde’s, to sell organic food.

Jeanette also writes for many prominent publications including the Guardian, Times, Daily Mail, Observer, New York Times, and Harpers Bazaar, and has featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

Winterson holds an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. She believes that art is for everyone and it is her mission to prove it.

12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next is her latest book.

 

Contact

12 Bytes @Wintersonworld

Uganda overwhelmingly voted in death penalty for LGBTQ love today. Backward and brutal . Death to love who you love ? I hope the timid Church of England expels the Ugandan bishop-mob who do so much harm in the name of God .

Suella Braverman refusing to allow media outlets critical of her Rwanda deportation scheme to join her on her trip there this wkend is a scary reminder that for the Tories, truth is what they say it it . Mail, GB News, Telegraph, on plane . Whatever your politics, this is wrong

Nasty man in a silly suit AKA Jacob Rees-Mogg, leading calls today to abolish BBC licence fee after Gary Lineker row . He doesn’t understand ( what’s new there ?) that multi millions of us pay the licence fee and are as disgusted as Lineker over the migrant scapegoating .

Had to laugh when I saw the Met Police celebrating International Women’s Day ! Wayne Couzens and David Carrick must be laughing behind bars too. Does the Met think this is how they will win back the trust of any woman?

As Boris nominates his Dad for a knighthood , having put his brother in the House of Lords , can’t we have a simple ban on Prime Ministers nominating ANY family members for public honours ? It’s corrupt . It’s brazen . It should be stopped as part of restoring trust in politics

Ex education secretary (Sir)Gavin Williamson now backtracking on leaked msgs calling teachers’ unions ‘absolute arses’ who ‘hate work’. He says he meant unions but Gavin, teaching unions are made up of, er, teachers . The Tories have nowhere to hide these days . Just go.

Now Michael Gove offers his ‘radical’ plan to fine parents by cutting child benefit if the kids play truant. Hungry kids will work harder, see? We need an ‘ethics of responsibility’ opines this horrid little man whose party takes no responsibility for 12 years of wrecking Britain

I can’t believe I have just heard Sunak say that Northern Ireland is in an ‘unbelievably special position’ with direct access to the U.K market plus EU single market. Whole of U.K had that access until the the economic suicide of Brexit. The Tories are ridiculous.

Telegraph having a go at Nicola Sturgeon for pursuing a policy (independence) that ‘deeply divided’ the country . This is the paper that supported Boris and Brexit.

Nadine Dorries standing down as an MP. What did she ever stand up for ? Not nurses , tho she is an ex nurse . Not culture, when was in charge of the arts . Oh yes. Boris . Her hero . What will this time look like when it’s history ? For me, history can’t come soon enough

Church of England to ‘consider gender neutral terms for God’. If God exists they are not an insecure male. They are not human at all. Or individual . Father , Son, Holy Ghost,puts words in the mouth of being-ness we cannot imagine. Anyway the Trinity is a Triple Goddess rip-off

OMG! Lettuce Leaf Liz claims in Telegraph that she was brought down by ‘economic orthodoxy’.Recasting herself as radical hero she has 0 sense that her ‘policies’ belong in the bin of 1980s neo-liberalism.Not new not smart not radical.Typical right-wing reversal of victim/offender

Thanks to @DrMeenalViz for the voiceover. See her earlier film about Michelle Mone here 👇

I don’t believe in the death penalty, but every time I hear that witless wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg talking about the marvels of Brexit, I want to rumble the guillotine across the cobbles and reach for my knitting .

News today that number of EU students enrolling at U.K. universities has halved . Yesterday we heard that bottlenecks for Brits to get passports stamped result in hundreds of unsold Eurostar seats every day . Well done Brexiteers! Unleash our potential! Britannia Unchained ‘

Cambridge philosopher Farbod Akhlaghi claims that giving someone advice about an important decision is immoral . Seems not to get friendship or gender issues. Leaving a coercive or violent partner often needs a forceful intervention. Real life is not a thought experiment

If we all stop using Amazon we could bring down the company. Spaceman and philanthropist Bezos would then have to pay his workers a living wage (not £10/hr) and treat humans like humans . He keeps banging on about giving his money away. Start with your workers , Jeff

What to do when it’s Minus 6 outside and I rushed in with firewood and threw down my coat. How do cats always know where to find what’s just right ?

My Godchild Eleanor Shearer ( the one with the headband ) has her first novel published today ! Ok so she is 27 now. RIVER SING ME HOME. It’s a great read set in post slavery Caribbean as a mother looks for her stolen children