Laura Mary Catherine Beatty (née Keen; born 1 May 1963) is a writer awarded the

Authors' Club First Novel Award The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented. ...

for her 2008 novel '' Pollard'', also shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize. She has also written two biographies, the first about

Lillie Langtry Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Born on the isla ...

which contained the first publication of correspondence between Lillie and her lover Arthur Jones.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Charles Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, eldest daughter of

Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe Edward Richard Assheton Penn Curzon, 6th Earl Howe, (7 August 1908 – 29 May 1984), styled Viscount Curzon from 1929 to 1964, was a British peer. Early life and background Curzon was born in St George Hanover Square, London, Middlesex, the ...

. Her brother is actor

Will Keen Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

(father of actress

Dafne Keen Dafne María Keen Fernández (born 4 January 2005) is a British-Spanish actress. She made her debut starring as Ana "Ani" Cruz Oliver on the television series '' The Refugees'' from 2014 to 2015, before her breakthrough starring as Laura in t ...

) and her sister is poet Alice Oswald. On 29 September 1990, she married the Hon. Nicholas Beatty, son of David Field Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty. They have one son, David Brin Charles Beatty (born 1992).

Bibliography

Non-fiction

*''

, Manner, Masks and Morals'' (1999,

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

) *''

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

, The Wife Who Lost Her Head'' (2001, Short Books, for children aged 10+)

Fiction

*'' Pollard'' (2008, Chatto & Windus) *'' Darkling'' (2014, Chatto & Windus) *'' Lost Property'' (2019,

Atlantic Books Atlantic Books is an independent British publishing house, with its headquarters in Ormond House in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is perhaps best known for publishing Aravind Adiga's debut novel '' The White Tiger'', which rec ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatty, Laura 1963 births English women novelists English biographers Laura Living people People from West Northamptonshire District 21st-century British novelists 21st-century English women writers 21st-century biographers English women non-fiction writers British women biographers