Jessie Burton

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Jessie Burton
JessieBurton by BenTurner-8 preview.jpg
Jessie Burton, at Bloomsbury publishers,
April 2018
Born
Jessica Kathryn Burton

(1982-08-17) 17 August 1982 (age 43)
London, England
Education Central School of Speech and Drama
Brasenose College, Oxford
Occupation(s)Author, actress

Jessica Kathryn Burton (born 17 August 1982) [1] is an English author; As of 2025, she has published four novels, The Miniaturist , The Muse, The Confession, The House of Fortune and three books for children, The Restless Girls, Medusa and Hidden Treasure. All four adult novels were Sunday Times best-sellers, with The Miniaturist, The Muse and The House of Fortune reaching no. 1, and both The Miniaturist and The Muse were New York Times best-sellers, and Radio 4's Books at Bedtime . Collectively her novels have been published in almost 40 languages. [2] Her short stories have been published in Harpers Bazaar US and Stylist. [3]

Contents

Burton is also a non-fiction writer. Her essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal , The Independent , Vogue , Elle , Red, Grazia , Lonely Planet Traveller and The Spectator . [3]

Early life and career

Burton grew up in Wimbledon, South London, [4] her parents originally from Battersea. [5] Burton attended Lady Margaret School in Fulham. [6] She went on to graduate from Brasenose College, Oxford and the Central School of Speech and Drama. [7]

A former stage actress, Burton's work in theatre includes The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other at the National Theatre, London in 2008. [8] Having aimed to be "a successful stage actress", by the age of 28 she had stalled in this career, and "could see the writing on the wall - the dream to be the next Kate Winslet wasn’t going to happen. I never fell out of love with acting, it fell out of love with me"; difficulty in getting auditions meant she worked temp jobs, including as a personal assistant in the City of London. [1] [9]

Writing career

Burton's 2014 debut novel The Miniaturist is set in 17th-century Amsterdam. The novel is inspired by Petronella Oortman's dollhouse now at the Rijksmuseum, although it does not otherwise attempt to be a biographical novel. [10] The Miniaturist took over four years to write. It was the subject of a bidding war at the April 2013 London Book Fair. [11] It was adapted as a two-part miniseries for the BBC and PBS Masterpiece in 2017.

Burton's second novel, The Muse, was published in 2016 and is set in a dual time-frame, during the Spanish Civil War and 30 years later in 1960s London. [12] It was nominated for the 2016 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards. [13]

Burton's first novel for children, The Restless Girls, was published in September 2018. [14] The story is based on the Brothers Grimm tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. [15]

Her third novel for adults, The Confession, was published in 2019. [16] [17] Medusa, her second book for children, was published in 2021. [18]

The House of Fortune, a sequel to The Miniaturist, was published in 2022. [19]

Hidden Treasure was published in 2025. This was the first book written since she became a mum [20] and was described as children's fantasy and pure magic by The Telegraph. [21]

Works

Adult novels
Children's books

Awards and recognitions

References

  1. 1 2 Inside back cover of 2015 Picador UK paperback edition of The Miniaturist
  2. ↑ "Home is where the heart is: Anita Sethi on Jessie Burton's books".
  3. 1 2 "Jessie Burton". Jessie Burton. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  4. ↑ Borciani, Chantal (26 October 2018). "Jessie Burton goes back to school". Time & Leisure. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  5. ↑ Colson, Thomas (7 July 2016). "My London: Jessie Burton". Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  6. ↑ Kellaway, Kate (26 June 2016). "Jessie Burton: 'Success can be as fracturing to your self as failure'". The Observer . Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Blackman, Jaines (28 March 2015). "Best-seller has been a life-changer for Jessie Burton". Oxford Mail . Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  8. ↑ National Theatre : Productions : The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other Archived 17 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "Jessie Burton's Move from Stage to Page".
  10. ↑ Spiegelman, Ian (29 August 2014). "Jessie Burton on the dollhouse that inspired her novel". USA Today . Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Jessie Burton: I never thought of The Miniaturist as ambitious". BBC News. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Quinn, Anthony (25 June 2016). "The Muse by Jessie Burton". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  13. ↑ "Inaugural Books are My Bag Award Winners Announced". Foyles. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  14. ↑ "The Restless Girls". Bloomsbury Publishing . Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  15. ↑ "THE RESTLESS GIRLS". Jessie Burton. Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  16. ↑ Hickling, Alfred (21 September 2019). "The Confession by Jessie Burton review – an understated triumph". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  17. ↑ Rhodes, Emily (5 October 2019). "Jessie Burton's The Confession is, frankly, a bit heavy-handed". The Spectator . Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  18. ↑ "Medusa".
  19. ↑ Preston, Alex (5 July 2022). "The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton review – bold and thrilling sequel to The Miniaturist". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  20. ↑ "Author Jessie Burton on how becoming a mother has impacted her writing". Harper's BAZAAR. 30 March 2025. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  21. ↑ Bearn, Emily (5 March 2025). "Jessie Burton tries her hand at children's fantasy – and it's pure magic". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  22. ↑ Tim Masters (1 December 2014). "Miniaturist novel named Waterstones book of 2014". BBC News. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  23. ↑ "Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist voted Specsavers Book of the Year". BBC News. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  24. ↑ Shaffi, Sarah (17 March 2023). "Carnegie medal for writing announces all-female shortlist". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 April 2023.
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