Liz Jensen

Last updated

Liz Jensen
Born1959 (age 6465)
Oxfordshire, England
Pen nameEmma Ryder
OccupationNovelist, translator, activist
Education Somerville College, Oxford
Genre Black comedy, science fiction, satire, family drama, historical fantasy, psychological suspense
Spouse Carsten Jensen
Children2, including Raphaël Coleman

Liz Jensen (born 1959) is an English novelist living in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Contents

Biography

Liz Jensen was born in Oxfordshire, the daughter of a Danish father and an Anglo-Moroccan mother. [1] She studied English at Somerville College, Oxford. [2]

She first worked as a print and radio journalist in Hong Kong and Taiwan. [3] She then spent four years as a sculptor, translator and freelance writer in France, [4] where she wrote her first novel, Egg Dancing (1995). She then returned to London to write Ark Baby (1998), The Paper Eater (2000), and War Crimes for the Home (2002). While living in the UK, Jensen also spent ten years working as a television and radio producer for the BBC. [3]

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005. [5] She is also a founder member of Extinction Rebellion's Writers Rebel. [6]

Her fifth novel was adapted into a film version, The 9th Life of Louis Drax , by Alexandre Aja in 2016. [7] [8] Her 2009 novel, The Rapture, is to be adapted into a five-part BBC One drama series starring Ruth Madeley. [9]

Personal life

Jensen is married to the Danish writer Carsten Jensen, author of the critically-acclaimed novel We, the Drowned, which she co-translated into English as Emma Ryder. [4] [10] [6] Her younger son by her first marriage, Raphaël Coleman, a child actor-turned-climate change activist, died from an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 25 in 2020. [11] [12]

Novels

Jensen talks about her 2009 novel The Rapture on Bookbits radio.
Non-fiction

Related Research Articles

<i>The Three Musketeers</i> 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in collaboration with ghostwriter Auguste Maquet. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight for justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tove Ditlevsen</span> Danish poet and author

Tove Irma Margit Ditlevsen was a Danish poet and author. With published works in a variety of genres, she was one of Denmark's best-known authors by the time of her death.

Judith Adele Finnigan is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molly Parker</span> Canadian actress (born 1972)

Molly Parker is a Canadian actress, writer, and director. She garnered critical attention for her portrayal of a necrophiliac medical student in the controversial drama Kissed (1996). She subsequently starred in the television thriller Intensity (1997) before landing her first major American film role in the drama Waking the Dead (2000). She gained further notice for her role as a Las Vegas escort in the drama The Center of the World (2001), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Jensen</span> Scottish actress and narrator (born 1969)

Ashley Jensen is a Scottish actress. She is best known for her roles as Maggie Jacobs in Extras, Christina McKinney in Ugly Betty (2006–2010), Agatha Raisin in Agatha Raisin (2014–present), and DI Ruth Calder in Shetland (2023–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandre Aja</span> French filmmaker (born 1978)

Alexandre Jouan-Arcady, known professionally as Alexandre Aja, is a French filmmaker best known for his work in the horror genre. He rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension. He has also directed the films The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010), Horns (2013) and Crawl (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Gadon</span> Canadian actress

Sarah Lynn Gadon is a Canadian actress. She began her acting career guest-starring in a number of television series, such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1999), Mutant X (2002), and Dark Oracle (2004). She also worked as a voice actress on various television productions. Gadon gained recognition for her roles in David Cronenberg's films A Dangerous Method (2011), Cosmopolis (2012), and Maps to the Stars (2014). She also starred in Denis Villeneuve's thriller Enemy (2013), the period drama Belle (2013), and the action horror film Dracula Untold (2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaya Scodelario</span> English actor (born 1992)

Kaya Rose Scodelario-Davis is a British actress. She first came to prominence co-starring on E4's Skins, receiving two Golden Nymph nominations for her portrayal of Effy Stonem. She then took on leading roles in a variety of films, such as Wuthering Heights (2011), the Maze Runner series (2014–2018), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Crawl (2019), and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). In 2024, she starred in the action comedy series The Gentlemen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Drax</span> British politician (born 1958)

Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax is a British Conservative Party politician, landowner, journalist, and former Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dorset between 2010 and 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathilde Fibiger</span> Danish feminist, novelist, and telegraphist

Mathilde Fibiger was a Danish feminist, novelist, and telegraphist.

<i>The 9th Life of Louis Drax</i> 2015 film by Alexandre Aja

The 9th Life of Louis Drax is a 2016 supernatural thriller film directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Jamie Dornan, Sarah Gadon, Aiden Longworth, Oliver Platt, Molly Parker, Julian Wadham, Jane McGregor, Barbara Hershey, and Aaron Paul. It was written by Max Minghella based on Liz Jensen's best-selling 2004 novel of the same title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Jensen</span> Danish author (1943–2021)

The Danish author Louis Jensen was an innovator in the international literary trends of flash fiction, metafiction, prose poetry, and magical realism. While he published more than 90 books for both adults and children, he was best known for his children's books, which include picture books, short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction and novels. His work is characterized by wordplay and playful experiments in form and structure, which have led critics to draw comparisons to Borges, Calvino, Gogol, and the poetry of the Oulipo movement. His work is also rooted in the fairy tale and folk tale tradition, and is deeply influenced by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

Polly Clark is a Canadian-born British writer and poet. She is the author of Larchfield (2017), which fictionalised a youthful period in the life of poet W. H. Auden, and Tiger (2019) about a last dynasty of wild Siberian tigers. She has published four critically acclaimed volumes of poetry. She lives in Helensburgh, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aja (entertainer)</span> American rapper and drag queen

Venus Nadya Oshun, known professionally as Aja Miyake-Mugler or better mononymously as Aja, is an American rapper, reality television personality and drag queen best known for competing on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.

<i>Crawl</i> (2019 film) American film by Alexandre Aja

Crawl is a 2019 American natural horror film directed by Alexandre Aja, written by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, and produced by Sam Raimi. It stars Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper as a daughter and father who, along with their dog, find themselves trapped in the crawl space of their home and preyed upon by alligators during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Bjørnsen</span> Danish novelist

Louise Cathrine Elisabeth Bjørnsen, pen name Elisabeth Martens, (1824–1899) was successful as an early Danish female novelist and short story writer. Following in the footsteps of Mathilde Fibiger, she published her first novel Hvad er Livet? in 1855, based on her own experiences as a governess. She went on to write five more novels and four collections of short stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Webb</span> British politician (born 1966)

Suzanne Webb is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Liz Truss from September to October 2022. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stourbridge from 2019 to 2024.

Ruth Madeley is a British actress known for her roles in Years and Years, The Rook and Doctor Who. She was born with spina bifida and has worked with the charity Whizz-Kidz for much of her life. She was nominated for a television BAFTA in 2016 for her work in Don't Take My Baby.

<i>Oxygen</i> (2021 film) French-American science fiction thriller film

Oxygen is a 2021 French-language science fiction thriller film produced and directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Christie LeBlanc. An American-French co-production, it stars Mélanie Laurent as a woman who awakens trapped in an airtight medical cryogenic unit, with Mathieu Amalric and Malik Zidi in supporting roles. The film was released by Netflix on May 12, 2021, and received generally positive reviews from critics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia von Levetzow</span> Danish author (1836–1921)

Cornelia Frederikke Juliane Victorine von Levetzow (1836–1921) was a popular Danish author of novels and short stories who published under the pen name J until 1894. Her first work, En ung Piges Historie (1861), a typically Danish governess novel, was a huge success which sold 50,000 copies in several editions and translations. Becoming increasingly religious in her writing, she published many more novels and short stories until 1908, some of them being published in several editions.

References

  1. "Liz Jensen". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  2. "The Rapture - Liz Jensen". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Gloucestershire Festivals - Anthony Minghella and Liz Jensen". BBC. 23 October 2004. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Join the Goldster Club". www.goldster.co.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  5. "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
  6. 1 2 "About Liz". Liz Jensen. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  7. Jensen, Liz (2 September 2016). "Liz Jensen: Seeing The Ninth Life of Louis Drax on screen is like meeting an eerie stranger". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  8. Yamato, Jen (27 August 2014). "'Fifty Shades Of Grey's Jamie Dornan To Star In Miramax's 'The 9th Life Of Louis Drax,' Alexandre Aja Directing". Deadline. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  9. Barraclough, Leo (20 April 2023). "Ruth Madeley to Star in BBC Adaptation of Liz Jensen's 'The Rapture'". Variety. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  10. "Liz Jensen: Imagining the future of a haunted planet". The Independent. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  11. McElroy, Holly (12 November 2020). "Liz Jensen | Storytellers & the Climate Crisis". Wales Arts Review. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  12. Shoard, Catherine (11 February 2020). "Raphaël Coleman, Nanny McPhee star and climate activist, dies aged 25". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 22 April 2023.