Jennifer Johnston
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]
Biography
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,[3] and currently lives near Dublin.[4]
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.[5] She is a mother of four, and is a member of Aosdána.[6]
Awards and honours
- 2012 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award[7]
- 2006 Irish PEN Award
- 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
List of works
- 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 (1985)
- Fool's Sanctuary (1988)
- The Invisible Worm (1992)
- The Illusionist (1995)
- Three Monologues: "Twinkletoes", "Musn'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)
- The Great Shark Escape (2001)
- 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)
- 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)
See also
References
- ↑ "Jennifer Johnston - Literature". Literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ "A shaper of sophisticated stories". Irishtimes.com. 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ Rosie Cowan. "Rosie Cowan on Jennifer Johnston". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ "Martina Devlin interviews Jennifer Johnston". Libranwriter.wordpress.com. 2014-11-05. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ "Modern Irish Writers: A Bio-critical Sourcebook - Alexander G. Gonzalez". Books.google.ie. 1930-01-12. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ "Members | Aosdana". Aosdana.artscouncil.ie. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ↑ Rosita Boland (November 23, 2012). "Banville wins novel of year at awards". The Irish Times. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
External links
- Jennifer Johnston at British Council: Literature
- Jennifer Johnston's works provides a decidedly pejorative view of Johnston's works
- Works by Jennifer Johnston at Open Library
- Jennifer Johnston (1930- )
- Jennifer Johnston on Amazon.com