Francine Toon (born 1986), also writing as Francine Elena, is a British writer.

Early life

Toon was born in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, England, in 1986, and moved to the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

, near

Dornoch Dornoch (; gd, Dòrnach ; sco, Dornach) is a town, seaside resort, parish and former royal burgh in the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north shore of the Dornoch Firth, near to where it opens into the Moray ...

, at the age of nine after living in England and Portugal. After two years the family moved to

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

on the coast of

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, but "the northern wilds have haunted her ever since, and form the backdrop to her debut novel". She lives in London and works in publishing: she was an editor at

Sceptre A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty. Antiquity Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia The ''Was'' and other ...

Writing

Her debut novel, ''Pine'', won the 2020

McIlvanney Prize Bloody Scotland is a Scottish international crime writing festival, held annually in Stirling, Scotland. It was founded in 2012 by Tartan Noir writers Lin Anderson and Alex Gray and describes itself as "the literary festival where you can let d ...

for "the best Scottish crime book of the year". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''' s reviewer said that it "inhabits the woods and fells like a secretive wild animal" and called it a "well-written tale" but said that "What lets the narrative down is its reliance on the conventional tropes of the ghost-story genre." ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'''s reviewer found that "There’s much to admire in Pine" but that "There are, however, one or two issues with the predictability of the plot that detract from the whole." while saying that the book is "carefully calibrated to make every single hair on the back of your neck stand up on end as if you’d just heard a twig snap behind you in a forest at midnight." It was included in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'''s "Best first novels to look out for in 2020". Her poetry, written under the name Francine Elena, has appeared in publications including ''Best British Poetry 2013'',''

The Honest Ulsterman ''The Honest Ulsterman'' is a long-running Northern Ireland literary magazine that was established by James Simmons in 1968. It was then edited for twenty years by Frank Ormsby. It has returned as an online publication from 2014 onwards. Edito ...

'', ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

'', and ''Wasafari'' She has interviewed other poets, including Mark Waldron for ''Prac Crit''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toon, Francine Living people 21st-century British women writers 21st-century British poets 21st-century British novelists 1986 births