Abigail Dean is an English writer, living in south London. [1] She has written the novels Girl A (2021) [2] and Day One (2024). [3]
Dean was born in Manchester [4] and grew up in Hayfield, Derbyshire. She graduated from Robinson College, Cambridge in 2008 [5] with a degree in English literature. [1] [6] After her degree she took a law conversion course, eventually specialising in information technology law, in which she has had a career. [1] She works as a lawyer for Google. [1]
In 2019 it was reported that Dean received a six-figure sum from UK publisher HarperCollins for her first novel Girl A and another, The Conspiracies. She reportedly received a seven-figure deal from US publisher Viking Press. [7] Girl A was published in the UK in January 2021. [8]
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales.
Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park,, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.
Valarie McDermid, is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill, in a sub-genre known as Tartan Noir.
Jonathan Saul Freedland is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for The Guardian and used to write for the Jewish Chronicle until, along with Hadley Freeman, David Aaronovitch, David Baddiel and others, he resigned dramatically in September 2024. Freedman also presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series The Long View. Freedland also writes thrillers, mainly under the pseudonym Sam Bourne, and has written a play, Jews. In Their Own Words, performed in 2022 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
Jill Halfpenny is an English actress who first garnered attention playing Nicola Dobson in the coming-of-age BBC drama series Byker Grove (1989–1992). She became more widely known for her roles as Rebecca Hopkins on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (1999–2000), Kate Mitchell on the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2002–2005), and Izzie Redpath in Waterloo Road (2006–2007). Her other notable credits include Babylon (2014), In the Club (2014–2016), Humans (2015), Three Girls (2017), Liar (2017–2020), Dark Money (2019), The Drowning (2021), and The Long Shadow (2023). She won the second series of the television dance contest Strictly Come Dancing in 2004.
Marilynne Summers Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Robinson began teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1991 and retired in the spring of 2016.
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Before I Go to Sleep is the first novel by S. J. Watson, published in the spring of 2011. It became both a Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over 40 languages, and has become a bestseller in France, Canada, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. It reached number 7 on the US bestseller list, the highest position for a debut novel by a British author since J. K. Rowling. The New York Times described the author as an "out-of-nowhere literary sensation". He wrote the novel between shifts whilst working as a National Health Service (NHS) audiologist.
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Oyinkan Braithwaite is a Nigerian-British novelist and writer. She was born in Lagos and spent her childhood in both Nigeria and the UK.
Dervla McTiernan is an Irish crime novelist.
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Girl A is a novel by Abigail Dean that was published in January 2021. For the crime thriller, which includes the abuse of children, Dean has said that she wanted to "focus on the effects of trauma and the media glare, rather than the suffering which triggers them."