Jeanette Winterson was born on August 27, 1959 in Manchester, England. She was adopted as an infant and raised by John and Constance Winterson. They were extremely religious and raised Jeanette to be religious as well, hoping that she would grow up to become a missionary. Winterson credits much of her love of books and language to reading the King James Bible as a child and adolescent. Winterson knew that she was a lesbian from a young age, and at age 16 she left home because her parents were not accepting of her sexuality.
After leaving home, Winterson worked odd jobs, and eventually went on to study at Oxford University. In 1985, Winterson published her debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. The novel was very successful, and won the 1985 Whitbread Prize for a First Novel. Since then, Winterson has had a prolific and celebrated writing career. Many of her works of fiction have included elements of historical fiction, experimentation with genres, and undermining expectations around gender and sexuality. Winterson has also written essays and a memoir.
Winterson has won many literary prizes, and has been named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Winterson is also a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a semi-autobiographical novel by Jeannette Winterson, first published in 1985. It draws on Winterson’s own experience growing up in the Elim Pentecostal Church in Accrington, Lancashire. The protagonist and...
Jeanette Winterson is an English author born on August 27, 1959 in Manchester, England. She grew up in a very religious household, but her sexual identity as a lesbian often conflicted with the values of her Church. At age 16, she decided to leave...
Published in 1989, Sexing the Cherry is Jeanette Winterson's third novel. It was preceded by Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) and The Passion (1987). Sexing the Cherry incorporates elements of historical fiction, which is an element shared by...
The Stone Gods was written by Jeanette Winterson and published in 2007. It combines components of a romance novel with a post apocalypse work while still touching on the topics of how governments are controlled by large corporations, the damaging...
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is English author Jeanette Winterson's 2012 memoir covering her life, particularly her strange and interesting childhood. The book is filled with stories of her life, stories about Jeanette being locked out...
Written on the Body is a fictional romance novel published in 1994 and written by Jeanette Winterson. An incredibly notable feat of the novel is that the narrator, who is in love with another character in the novel, never has their gender or...
