Isabel Wolff is a British novelist in the

Chick Lit Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...

genre. She was born in Warwickshire, United Kingdom. She graduated from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

with a Bachelor of Science in English. She currently lives in

Islington, London Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

and has a home on the

Roseland Peninsula The Roseland Peninsula, or just Roseland, ( kw, Ros, meaning ''promontory'') is a district of west Cornwall, England. Roseland is located in the south of the county and contains the town of St Mawes and villages such as St Just and Gerrans. ...

. Aside from being a novelist, Wolff has worked as a radio producer and reporter for the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

Work

Wolff's first novel, ''The Trials of Tiffany Trott'', was born in 1997 when the London Daily Telegraph asked her to write a comic column. Trott's persona is as British working-girl. HarperCollins commissioned Wolff to turn the column into a book. Her 2009 book, ''A Vintage Affair'', was an Amazon.co.uk 'Best of the Year' title that year. The same book was also on the short list for the 2011 American Library Association's The Reading List for Women Fiction. ''A Vintage Affair'' is also her first novel that reached a wider readership, including being published for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

book market. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' wrote that in ''The Very Picture of You'' (2011), Wolff handled multiple plotlines, balancing the stories of "betrayal, deception and remorse" told in the novel in a skillful manner. Wolff's novel, ''Ghostwritten'' (2014), deals with the largely unknown issue of civilians from

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

, many of them women and children, who were sent to live in

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

run by the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The story is very much about "childhood traumas," such as losing a sibling.

Publications

* ''The Trials of Tiffany Trott'', Onyx (New York, NY), 1998 * ''The Making of Minty Malone'', Onyx (New York, NY), 1999 * ''Out of the Blue'', HarperCollins (London, England), 2001, Red Dress Ink (New York, NY), 2003 * ''Rescuing Rose'', HarperCollins (London, England), 2002 * ''Behaving Badly'', HarperCollins (London, England), 2003 * ''A Question of Love'', HarperCollins (London, England), 2005 * ''Forget Me Not'', HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007 * ''A Vintage Affair'', Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2009 * ''The Very Picture of You'', Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2011 * ''Ghostwritten'' (in UK) or ''Shadows Over Paradise'' (in US), HarperCollins (London, England), 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Isabel Women's fiction English women novelists British chick lit writers Living people Writers from London Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Cambridge