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Esther Freud

(b.1963)

Esther Freud was born in London in 1963.She trained as an actress before writing her first novel Hideous Kinky, published in 1991. Hideous Kinky was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993 she was chosen by Granta as one of the Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Genres: Literary Fiction

Novels

   Hideous Kinky (1992)
   Peerless Flats (1993)
   Meeting Bilal (1996)
   Gaglow (1997)
   Summer at Gaglow (1999)
   The Wild (2000)
   The Sea House (2003)
   Love Falls (2007)
   Lucky Break (2011)
   Mr Mac and Me (2014)
   I Couldn't Love You More (2021)

Collections

Ox-Tales:Water (2009) (with William Boyd, Michel Faber, Giles Foden, Zoë Heller, Heri Kunzu, Michael Morpurgo, David Park and Vikram Seth)

Plays

Hideous Kinky: Film Screenplay (1999) (with Billy Mackinnon)
Stitchers (2018)

Novellas

Transference (2016)

Esther Freud recommends

Anita and Me (1996)
Meera Syal
"A marvellous crash course in Asian/Brummie culture. Funny, moving and packed full of wonderful surprises."

Traplines (1996)
Eden Robinson
"A subtle, brutal and compelling read."

Girl Nobody (1998)
Tomek Tryzna
"A whirlwind... inspired..."

The Sun Road (2003)
Hannah MacDonald
"Wonderful. I read it late into the night ... quite disbelieving this was a first novel."

The Scar of David (2006)
Susan Abulhawa
"A powerful and heartbreaking book."

Fair Play (2007)
Tove Jansson
"A book about love - tender, eccentric and fiercely independent. It feels a privilege to read it."

Novel about My Wife (2008)
Emily Perkins
"Brimming with talent."

The Whole Wide Beauty (2010)
Emily Woof
"Passionate and devastating. I read it in one sitting."

The Innocents (2012)
Francesca Segal
"A moving, funny, richly drawn story of a young man's attempts to find out who he wants to be when there are so many others who know best. Full of real pleasures and unexpected wisdom, this book sweeps you along."

Shame (2015)
Melanie Finn
"A powerfully evocative novel."

The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019)
Christy Lefteri
"This book dips below the deafening headlines, and tells a true story with subtlety and power."

The Silence (2020)
Susan Allott
"A darkly gripping and addictive read. I tore through it in a few days."

The Harpy (2020)
Megan Hunter
"It’s utterly compelling and I read it without pause. So precise and darkly truthful. I thought it succeeding in illuminating – with flair and originality – the damage done by betrayal."

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