Freya North
Author of Pillow Talk
About the Author
Image credit: freyanorth.co.uk
Series
Works by Freya North
Associated Works
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society: Breast Cancer Care Short Story Collection (2009) — Contributor — 92 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- North, Freya
- Birthdate
- 1967-11-21
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Hertfordshire
- Occupations
- novelist
- Short biography
- Freya North was born on 21 November 1967 in London, England, UK. She gave up a PhD scholarship to write her first novel, Sally. For 4 years she turned deaf ears to parents and friends who pleaded with her to ‘get a proper job’. She went on the dole and did a succession of freelance and temping jobs to support “writing days” every now and then. In 1996 she approached one of the UK’s top literary agents, Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown Ltd. Lloyd took her on and put her work up for auction. 5 publishers enter a bidding war for Freya’s books. A three-book deal for a six figure sum is the result. Published since 1996 to great acclaim. She lives in London with her family. In 2008 Freya won the Romantic Novel of the Year award by the Romantic Novelists' Association with Pillow Talk.
Members
Reviews
The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is an ode to childhood and teenage years and the long-lasting effect they have upon us.
Eadie is an unusual child. We are at first privy to her childhood home in Parkwin, a garden city, where she lives with her parents next door to a cemetery. The dead people it houses become an unlikely kind of support to her as she navigates her school years. Whilst she makes good friends at primary school, she is also bullied and the consequences of this ripple down through the story.
We then follow Eadie to university in Manchester. This book is billed as a love letter to youth but it's also very clearly a love letter to Manchester in the heady days of the late 80s. This is a story that takes Eadie full circle, and through sections set ten years after her university days, her unfinished business is finally dealt with.
Much of this story is based around Freya North's own experiences of university life in Manchester, even down to the house she lived in and the settee she sat on. I could tell this was an intensely personal book for her and that the detail mattered because it mattered to her. I found it quite an introspective and brooding kind of read in many ways, and it has a touch of melancholy about it. I loved Eadie's descriptions of her childhood home, her parents scribbling away at their desks, her visits to the cemetery. North describes perfectly the school years and that difficult step from primary to secondary school, and then the bewildering leap into university and being away from home for the first time.
This book flung me headlong back into the 80s and 90s, reminded me what it was like to be young, to not know what you want to do, where or how you want to be. It's about different friendships at different times in your life, and about dealing with the past to fully live in the present. North's writing is thoughtful and perceptive and this is a poignant and nostalgic read.… (more)
Eadie is an unusual child. We are at first privy to her childhood home in Parkwin, a garden city, where she lives with her parents next door to a cemetery. The dead people it houses become an unlikely kind of support to her as she navigates her school years. Whilst she makes good friends at primary school, she is also bullied and the consequences of this ripple down through the story.
We then follow Eadie to university in Manchester. This book is billed as a love letter to youth but it's also very clearly a love letter to Manchester in the heady days of the late 80s. This is a story that takes Eadie full circle, and through sections set ten years after her university days, her unfinished business is finally dealt with.
Much of this story is based around Freya North's own experiences of university life in Manchester, even down to the house she lived in and the settee she sat on. I could tell this was an intensely personal book for her and that the detail mattered because it mattered to her. I found it quite an introspective and brooding kind of read in many ways, and it has a touch of melancholy about it. I loved Eadie's descriptions of her childhood home, her parents scribbling away at their desks, her visits to the cemetery. North describes perfectly the school years and that difficult step from primary to secondary school, and then the bewildering leap into university and being away from home for the first time.
This book flung me headlong back into the 80s and 90s, reminded me what it was like to be young, to not know what you want to do, where or how you want to be. It's about different friendships at different times in your life, and about dealing with the past to fully live in the present. North's writing is thoughtful and perceptive and this is a poignant and nostalgic read.… (more)
I really nearly gave up on this, it has a very slow start but once Nell actually got to Harris the story picked up and I did find myself quite emotional. Unfortunately there are a lot of laboured musings in this and I did find my eyes skipping over the descriptions a lot, it could probably do with being a shorter novel, which is a shame as the story was nice.
Another book i've pre ordered ready for delivery on publication day, straight to my kindle.. I've read all of Freya's books and like Katie FForde's books they are really great and so easy to get into.
Well it arrived and i enjoyed every single page of this brilliant book. It had me laughing out loud and i mean proper belly laughs, in some parts. Cringling in others, quite sad in some, but thats what made Chances.
A really brilliant read that i'd most certainly recommend.
Well it arrived and i enjoyed every single page of this brilliant book. It had me laughing out loud and i mean proper belly laughs, in some parts. Cringling in others, quite sad in some, but thats what made Chances.
A really brilliant read that i'd most certainly recommend.
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 18
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 2,129
- Popularity
- #12,093
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 44
- ISBNs
- 227
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 4
The sale of a large country estate in the English countryside brings Stella and Xander into each other's orbits - Stella is focused on the sale (and giant commission), while Xander is opposed to the changes that will be wrought in both his life and that of his village. But this conflict is no match for the attraction they both feel, and for the encouragement and support their friends and family provide as they explore a relationship.
Light, frothy, feel-good fun.
4 stars… (more)