Paula Hawkins (author)

Last updated

Paula Hawkins
Paula Hawkins Goteborg Book Fair 2015.jpg
Hawkins at Gothenburg Book Fair in 2015
Born (1972-08-26) 26 August 1972 (age 52)
Salisbury, Rhodesia
Pen name
  • Amy Silver
OccupationNovelist, journalist
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Keble College, Oxford
Notable works
Website
paulahawkinsbooks.com

Paula Hawkins (born 26 August 1972) is a British author best known for her top-selling psychological thriller novel The Girl on the Train (2015), which deals with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. [1] [2] The novel was adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt in 2016. [3] Hawkins' second thriller novel, Into the Water , was released in 2017. [4]

Contents

Life and career

Hawkins was born and raised in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), the daughter of Anthony "Tony" Hawkins and his wife Glynne. [5] Her father was an economics professor and financial journalist. Before moving to London in 1989 aged 17, Hawkins attended Arundel School, Harare, Zimbabwe then studied for her A-Levels at Collingham College, an independent college in Kensington, West London. [6] Hawkins read philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, University of Oxford. [6] [7] She worked as a journalist for The Times , reporting on business. She then worked for a number of publications on a freelance basis, and wrote a financial-advice book for women, The Money Goddess. [2]

She did not achieve a commercial breakthrough until she challenged herself to write a darker, more serious story. [6] Her best-selling novel The Girl on the Train (2015) is a complex thriller, with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. [2] The novel took her six months, writing full-time, to complete, at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father. The novel was adapted into a film in 2016. [1] In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. [8] Paula's second thriller Into The Water was published in May 2017 and went on to become a Sunday Times and NYT bestseller. Her novel A Slow Fire Burning was published on 31 August 2021.

Around 2009, Hawkins began to write romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver, writing four novels including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosamund Pike</span> British actress (born 1979)

Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike is an English actress and producer. Prolific in both film and television, she is particularly known for her portrayals of morally ambiguous women in psychological thrillers and dramas. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Rendell</span> English writer (1930–2015)

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Doughty</span> English novelist, playwright and journalist

Louise Doughty is an English novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her bestselling novels, including Apple Tree Yard. She has also worked as a cultural critic for newspapers and magazines. Her weekly column for The Daily Telegraph was published as A Novel in a Year in 2007. Doughty was the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read in 1998 to 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsitsi Dangarembga</span> Zimbabwean author and filmmaker

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988), which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world. She has won other literary honours, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the PEN Pinter Prize. In 2020, her novel This Mournable Body was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2022, Dangarembga was convicted in a Zimbabwe court of inciting public violence, by displaying, on a public road, a placard asking for reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Blunt</span> British actress (born 1983)

Emily Olivia Laura Blunt is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and four British Academy Film Awards. Forbes ranked her as one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karin Slaughter</span> American crime writer (born 1971)

Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. She has written 24 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Kinsella</span> English author

Madeleine Sophie Wickham, known by her pen name Sophie Kinsella, is an English author. The first two novels in her best-selling Shopaholic series, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad, were adapted into the film Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009). Her books have sold over 40 million copies in more than 60 countries and have been translated into over 40 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kia Abdullah</span> British novelist and travel writer

Kia Abdullah is a British novelist and travel writer. She is the best-selling author of courtroom dramas Take It Back, Truth Be Told, Next of Kin and Those People Next Door. She has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times,The Financial Times, The Telegraph and the BBC, among other publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Cressida Wilson</span> American dramatist

Erin Cressida Wilson is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian Flynn</span> American writer (born 1971)

Gillian Schieber Flynn is an American author, screenwriter, and producer. She is known for writing the thriller and mystery novels Sharp Objects (2006), Dark Places (2009), and Gone Girl (2012), which are all critically acclaimed. Her books have been published in 40 languages, and according to The Washington Post, as of 2016 Gone Girl alone has sold more than 15 million copies.

Tana French is an American-Irish writer and theatrical actress. She is a longtime resident of Dublin, Ireland. Her debut novel In the Woods (2007), a psychological mystery, won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for best first novel. The Independent has referred to her as "the First Lady of Irish Crime".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tosca Lee</span> American author of Christian fiction

Tosca Lee is an American author known for her historical novels and thrillers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Stewart (writer)</span> American author

Amy N. Stewart is an American author best known for books on horticulture and the natural world.

<i>Gone Girl</i> (novel) 2012 novel by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a 2012 crime thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn. It was published by Crown Publishing Group in June 2012. The novel was popular and made the New York Times Best Seller list. The sense of suspense in the novel comes from whether Nick Dunne is responsible for the disappearance of his wife Amy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Abbott</span> British author

Rachel Abbott is an English author of psychological thrillers. A self-publisher, her first seven novels have combined to sell over three million copies, and have all been bestsellers on Amazon's Kindle store. In 2015, she was named the 14th bestselling author over the last five years on Amazon's Kindle in the UK.

Cally Taylor, also known as C.L. Taylor, is an English Sunday Times bestselling crime author. As Cally Taylor she wrote romantic comedies published by Orion Publishing Group and as C.L. Taylor, she publishes psychological thrillers through HarperCollins. On 16 July 2024 she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle-on-Tyne

<i>The Girl on the Train</i> (novel) 2015 novel by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train is a 2015 psychological thriller novel by British author Paula Hawkins that gives narratives from three different women about relationship troubles and, for the main protagonist, alcoholism. The novel debuted in the number one spot on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list dated 1 February 2015, and remained in the top position for 13 consecutive weeks, until April 2015. In January 2016 it became the #1 best-seller again for two weeks. Many reviews referred to the book as "the next Gone Girl", referring to a popular 2012 psychological mystery, by author Gillian Flynn, with similar themes that used unreliable narrators.

<i>The Girl on the Train</i> (2016 film) Film by Tate Taylor

The Girl on the Train is a 2016 American mystery psychological thriller film directed by Tate Taylor and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on the popular 2015 debut novel of the same name by British author Paula Hawkins. The film stars Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Édgar Ramírez, and Lisa Kudrow. The film follows an alcoholic divorcée who becomes involved in a missing person investigation.

Arundel School is a private, day and boarding school for girls aged 12–18 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

<i>Into the Water</i> 2017 novel by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water (2017) is a thriller novel by British author Paula Hawkins. It is Hawkins' second full-length thriller following the success of The Girl on the Train.

References

  1. 1 2 Saner, Emine (21 April 2015). "The Girl on the Train: how Paula Hawkins wrote 'the new Gone Girl'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Alter, Alexandra (30 January 2015). "Welcoming the Dark Twist in Her Career". New York Times. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. Dargis, Manohla (5 October 2016). "Review: In 'The Girl on the Train,' a Boozy Emily Blunt Never Winks". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  4. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
  5. Hawkins, Paula (2 May 2017). Into the Water: The addictive Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller. Transworld. ISBN   978-1-4735-4221-1.
  6. 1 2 3 Runaway success: Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train. Portraits by Pal Hansen Evening Standard
  7. "Twitter post". Twitter . Keble College, Oxford . Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  8. "BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  9. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista by Amy Silver
  10. All I Want for Christmas by Amy Silver
  11. One Minute to Midnight by Amy Silver
  12. The Reunion by Amy Silver
  13. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins