Women's Prize for Fiction
1 appearances
-
Edition 9 (2004) Winner
Andrea Levy
アンドレア・レビー
Andrea Levy
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1956-03-07 （Archway, London, England）
- Died
- 2019-02-14 （Highgate Cemetery, London, England） age 62
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Highbury, London, England → Archway, London, England
Career
- Occupations
- Author, Novelist
- Active Years
- 1994-2019
- Memberships
- Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)
- Nominations
- Man Booker Prize shortlist (The Long Song), 2010
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middlesex Polytechnic | — | Textile design and weaving | — | — | United Kingdom |
| Highbury Hill Grammar School (former name) | — | — | — | — | United Kingdom |
Middlesex Polytechnic
Textile design and weaving
Country:
United Kingdom
Studied textile design and weaving.
Highbury Hill Grammar School (former name)
Country:
United Kingdom
Secondary education (attended)
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Orange Prize for Fiction | Small Island | — | Orange Prize committee | winner |
| 2004 | Whitbread Book of the Year | Small Island | — | Whitbread/Booker awards committee | winner |
| 2005 | Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Small Island | — | Commonwealth Writers | winner |
| 2011 | Walter Scott Prize | The Long Song | — | Walter Scott Prize committee | winner |
| 2010 | Man Booker Prize | The Long Song | — | Man Booker Prize committee | shortlist |
| 2005 | Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature | — | — | Royal Society of Literature | elected |
| 2012 | Honorary Fellowship of Queen Mary University of London | — | — | Queen Mary University of London | honorary |
Orange Prize for Fiction
2004
Work:
Small Island
Organization:
Orange Prize committee
Result:
winner
Whitbread Book of the Year
2004
Work:
Small Island
Organization:
Whitbread/Booker awards committee
Result:
winner
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
2005
Work:
Small Island
Organization:
Commonwealth Writers
Result:
winner
Walter Scott Prize
2011
Work:
The Long Song
Organization:
Walter Scott Prize committee
Result:
winner
Man Booker Prize
2010
Work:
The Long Song
Organization:
Man Booker Prize committee
Result:
shortlist
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2005
Organization:
Royal Society of Literature
Result:
elected
Honorary Fellowship of Queen Mary University of London
2012
Organization:
Queen Mary University of London
Result:
honorary
Awards & Nominations
Costa Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 34 (2004) Excellence Award
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 19 (2005) Winner
Works
Major Works
Every Light in the House Burnin'
1994 Semi-autobiographical novelA semi-autobiographical novel about a girl growing up in 1960s north London as the child of Jamaican migrants, exploring family, poverty and identity with humour and clarity.
migrationfamilycoming-of-age
Small Island
2004 Historical novel / Social novelSet in post-World War II Britain and Jamaica, the novel interweaves perspectives of the Windrush generation and white British characters to examine migration, race and shared history.
Windrush generationmigration and belongingpost-war society
Adaptations
- [Television drama] Small Island (TV film) (2009)
- [Stage play] Small Island (stage adaptation) / Helen Edmundson（脚本家による翻案、演出は劇場により異なる） (2019)
The Long Song
2010 Historical novelA novel set in late slavery and the period of emancipation in Jamaica, depicting colonialism and human relationships through personal memory, combining humour and poignancy.
slaverycolonialismmemory and narration
Adaptations
- [Television series] The Long Song (TV adaptation) (2018)
Fruit of the Lemon
1999 Family novel / Immigration narrativeSet in England and Jamaica, the novel examines differences between native Jamaicans and their British-born descendants through family history and identity.
belongingfamily historybicultural identity
Bibliography
- Every Light in the House Burnin' (1994)
- Never Far from Nowhere (1996)
- Fruit of the Lemon (1999)
- Small Island (2004)
- The Long Song (2010)
- Six Stories and an Essay (2014)
- Uriah's War (short story, 2014)
Adaptations
- Small Island (BBC TV drama, 2009)
- Small Island (National Theatre stage adaptation, premiered 2019)
- The Long Song (BBC TV adaptation, 2018)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- skilled use of contemporary English narration and dialogueblend of humour and irony in tonemulti-voiced narration that overlays history and personal memory
- Recurring Motifs
- memories of migrationfamily and rootsboundaries of nationality and race
Health
-
metastatic breast cancer約15年間Lived with metastatic breast cancer for about 15 years; continued to write while undergoing treatment and ultimately died from the disease.
Legacy
Andrea Levy brought the experiences of the Windrush generation and British Jamaicans to the centre of literature, popularising migration and identity narratives in contemporary British fiction. Her award-winning works were adapted for television and stage and left an important legacy in UK letters.
Academic Societies
- Queen Mary University of London (Honorary Fellow)
Archives
- Literary archive acquired by the British Library
In Popular Culture
- BBC documentary 'Andrea Levy: Her Island Story' (2018)
- BBC Radio 4 programme 'Andrea Levy: In Her Own Words' (2020)
- TV adaptation of Small Island (2009) and stage adaptation (2019)
Quotes
-
When I started Small Island I didn't intend to write about the war. But beginning in 1948 made me realise nothing made sense without the war. Caribbean people had been left out of that story, and I am attempting to put them back into it.
Source: Interview (2004) (2004)
Trivia
- Her father came to Britain on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948.
- She did not start reading books until the age of 23, after which she read intensively.
- She became the first writer of colour to have her pen added to the Royal Society of Literature's historic pen collection.