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'Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle; it didn't matter what' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

About the Author

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. She published her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, at twenty-five. Over two decades later she revisited that material in her internationally bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Winterson has written thirteen novels for adults and two previous collections of short stories, as well as children's books, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. She lives in the Cotswolds in a wood and in Spitalfields, London.

Reviews

She is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent abides
*Vanity Fair*

Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language... In her hands, words are fluid, radiant, humming
*Evening Standard*

A novel that deserves revisiting...Winterson maintains a balance of tone, a trueness of voice... It remains one of the finest things Winterson has written
*Observer*

Still extraordinary, still brilliant
*Metro*

Even at a time when so many good and interesting novels are coming out, hers stand out as performances of real originality and extraordinary promise
*John Bayley*

Wonderful rites-of-passage novel... where the author's blossoming Sapphic nature leads her to eschew her mothers proffered favourite
*Mariella Frostrup*

It is very funny, with an Alan Bennett sort of humour, beautifully written, quirky and likely to cause much tuttutting in conservative quarters
*Daily Mail*

This lesbian coming of age story set in northern England doesn't seem to have aged a bit
*Independent*

An instant classic
*Herald*

You'll find everything you need to know about mustering the courage to embrace your true self and live life without fear in Winterson's hugely engaging semi-autobiographical novel
*Sunday Times*