Andrea Levy

Biography

Andrea Levy was born in London, England in 1956 to Jamaican parents. She is the author of four novels, each of which explore - from different perspectives - the problems faced by black British-born children of Jamaican emigrants.

Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical Every Light in the House Burnin' (1994), is the story of a Jamaican family living in London in the 1960s. Her second, Never Far from Nowhere (1996), is set during the 1970s and tells the story of two very different sisters living on a London council estate. In Fruit of the Lemon (1999), Faith Jackson, a young black Londoner, visits Jamaica after suffering a nervous breakdown and discovers a previously unknown personal history. Levy's most recent novel, Small Island (2004), set in 1948, explores the interaction between a black couple, Gilbert, a former RAF recruit, who has returned to Britain on the SS Windrush, and his Jamaican wife Hortense, and a white couple: Queenie, their landlady, and her recently demobbed husband, Bernard. It won the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction, the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year, and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize. Small Island is currently being adapted for BBC television.

Andrea Levy has been a judge for the Saga Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. She lives with her partner, a graphic designer, in north London.

Bibliography

Every Light in the House Burnin' Review, 1994
Never Far from Nowhere Review, 1996
Fruit of the Lemon Review, 1999
Small Island Review, 2004

Prizes and Awards

1998 Arts Council Writers' Award Fruit of the Lemon
2004 Orange Prize for Fiction Small Island
2004 Whitbread Novel Award Small Island
2004 Whitbread Book of the Year Small Island
2005 British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year (shortlist)
2005 British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award(shortlist) Small Island
2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize(Overall Winner, Best Book) Small Island
2005 Orange of