Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels; The Evil Seed (1989), Sleep, Pale Sister (1993) and Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Since then, she has written eleven more novels; Blackberry Wine (2000), Five Quarters of the Orange (2001), Coastliners (2002), Holy Fools (2003), Gentlemen and Players (2005), The Lollipop Shoes (2007), Runemarks (2007), Blueeyedboy (2010), Runelight (2011), Peaches for Monsieur le Curé (2012), The Gospel of Loki  (2014) and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller (2014). 

In addition to this impressive output, she has published two books of short stories; Jigs & Reels (2004), and A Cat, A Hat and a Piece of String (2012), and, with cookery writer Fran Warde, three cookbooks; The French Kitchen and The French Market and The Little Book of Chocolat.

Her books are now published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards.  In 2013 she was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

She plays bass guitar in a band first formed when she was 16, is currently studying Old Norse and lives with her husband Kevin and daughter Anouchka, about 15 miles from the place she was born.