Esther Freud

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Esther Freud
Esther Freud.jpg
Freud in 2008
Born1963 (ages 61-62)
London, England
OccupationNovelist
Years active1984–present
Spouse
(m. 2006;sep. 2020)
Children3
Father Lucian Freud
Family Freud

Esther Freud (born 1963) is a British novelist, known for her autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992). She is the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud.

Contents

Early life and education

Born in London in 1963, [1] Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and painter Lucian Freud. She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud.[ citation needed ]

She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, returning to London at 16 to train as an actress at The Drama Centre.[ citation needed ]

Career

She has worked in television and theatre as both actress and writer. Her first credited television appearance was as a terrified diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bomb scare. A year later, she appeared as an alien in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen . [2] Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky , which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet.[ citation needed ]

She is also the author of The Wild, Gaglow, and The Sea House. [3] She also wrote the foreword for The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.[ citation needed ]

Freud was named as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta magazine in 1993. [3] Her novels have been translated into 13 languages. [3] She is also the co-founder (with Kitty Aldridge) of the women's theatre company Norfolk Broads.[ citation needed ]

In 2009, she donated the short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection. [4] As of 2014, Freud taught at the Faber Academy.

Freud was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019. [5]

Personal life

Freud has a sister, fashion designer Bella Freud, and a half-brother, Noah Woodman. Her uncle was politician Sir Clement Freud. She has two cousins in the media industry; public relations executive Matthew and broadcaster Emma.[ citation needed ]

She was married to actor David Morrissey, with whom she has three children. They married in 2006. [6] They had separated by 2020, when Freud began living with a boyfriend. [7] Freud maintains[ when? ] homes in London and Walberswick near Southwold in Suffolk.[ citation needed ]

Freud's maternal grandparents were Catholics but her mother was non-observant, while her father's Jewish family were atheists. She identifies as Jewish. [8] [9] [10]

Bibliography

Novels

Short fiction

Stories
TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedNotes
Desire2021Freud, Esther (27 September 2021). "Desire". The New Yorker. 97 (30): 72–78.

See also

References

  1. Alice O'Keeffe (31 August 2014). "Esther Freud: 'I realised the book I'd been writing for 18 months was awful'". The Guardian.
  2. Freud, Esther (4 April 2009). "I was an alien in Dr Who". The Times . London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 British Council. "Esther Freud - British Council Literature". britishcouncil.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  4. Oxfam: Ox-Tales Archived 20 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Freud, Esther". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  6. "Celebrity couple tie the knot in Suffolk". 14 August 2006.
  7. Preston, Alex (29 May 2021). "Esther Freud: 'I didn't learn to read till I was about 10'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  8. "Interview: Esther Freud". The JC. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  9. "The NS Interview: Bella Freud, designer and campaigner". The New Statesman. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  10. "Bernardine Freud obituary". The Guardian. August 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2021.