Rachel Joyce (born 1962) is a British writer. She has written plays for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, and jointly won the 2007 Tinniswood Award for her radio play ''To Be a Pilgrim''. Her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, ''

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry ''The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'' is a novel by Rachel Joyce, published in 2012. Joyce's first novel, it was a long-list finalist (top 12) for the 2012 Man Booker Prize,Wakin, Daniel J. (25 July 2012). AshantMan Booker Prize Finalists A ...

'', was on the longlist for the

2012 Man Booker Prize The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stotha ...

, and in December 2012 she was awarded the "New Writer of the Year" award by the National Book Awards for this book. She had an earlier career as an actress, ''Includes two photographs of Joyce, playing Celia in ''As You Like It'' and has said that between her first writing ambitions aged 14 and the writing of her first novel she was "a young woman, a mother, an actress, a writer of radio drama - not to mention a terrible waitress in a wine bar, a door-to-door sales girl for one morning, and an assistant in a souvenir shop". She is married to actor

Paul Venables Paul Venables (born 3 February 1962) is a British actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. Venables grew up in Devon and then trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His breakthrough role was as Jamie Callen ...

, and lives in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

with her husband and four children. She is the sister of actress

Emily Joyce Emily Sian Joyce (born 12 April 1969) is an English actress best known for playing the role of Janet Dawkins in the BBC comedy series '' My Hero'', between 2000 and 2006. Early life Joyce is the youngest of three sisters, all of whom are in ...

Books

*''

'' (2012, Doubleday: ) *''Perfect'' (2013, Doubleday: ) *''The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy'' (2014, Doubleday: ) *''A Snow Garden and Other Stories'' (2015, Doubleday: ) *''The Music Shop'' (2017, Doubleday: ) *''Miss Benson's Beetle'' (11 June 2020, Penguin: ) *''Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North'' (20 October 2022, Doubleday: )

Awards

* Tinniswood Award, 2007 (joint award), for ''To Be A Pilgrim''
French Literary Award
("Prix Littéraire des Jeunes Européens, 2014 France) for ''The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'' *Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, 2021, for ''Miss Benson's Beetle''

Reference List

External links

Official Website
*
Video interview published by Random House publishers
* Living people 1962 births British women novelists 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British women writers British women dramatists and playwrights 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights Writers from London {{UK-novelist-stub