Jenny Downham

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Jenny Downham (born 1964) is a British novelist and an ex-actress who has published four books.

Contents

Career

Her debut novel, Before I Die , is the fictional account of the last few months of a sixteen-year-old girl who has been dying of leukaemia for four years. [1] The book won the 2008 Branford Boase Award. [2] It was short listed for the 2008 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize [3] and the 2008 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year and nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal and the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize. [4] In 2012 it was adapted into a film called Now Is Good and starred Dakota Fanning. [5]

Downham's second novel, You Against Me , was published in December 2010. [6] The book is a novel about family, loyalty, and the choices which we have to make.

Her third novel, Unbecoming , published in 2015, is a story of three generations of women and the uncovering of family secrets.

Her fourth, Furious Thing, published in October 2019, was shortlisted in the children's book category of that year's Costa Book Awards. [7]

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References

  1. "Before I Die by Jenny Downham - review". The Guardian. 8 October 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  2. "Previous Winners – The Branford Boase Award and The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition". branfordboaseaward.org.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  3. Guardian Staff (5 September 2008). "Guardian children's fiction prize shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  4. "Before I Die by Jenny Downham". penguin.com.au. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  5. "Now Is Good – review | Movies". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  6. You Against Me: Amazon.co.uk: Jenny Downham: Books. Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  7. iNews 2019-11-26. Retrieved 2019-11-26.