Joan Brady (American-British writer)
Joan Brady Masters | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joan Brady 4 December 1939 San Francisco, United States |
| Pen name | Joan Brady |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | British |
| Period | 1979–present |
| Genre | Biography, suspense fiction |
| Notable works | Theory of War |
| Spouse | Dexter Masters (1909–1989) |
| Children | Alexander Masters (son) |
| Relatives | Mildred Edie Brady (mother), Robert A. Brady (father) |
| Website | |
| joanbrady | |
Joan Brady (born 4 December 1939 in San Francisco) is an American-British writer. She is the first woman and American to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for her novel Theory of War.
Biography[edit]
Personal life[edit]
Born Joan Brady on 4 December 1939 in San Francisco to Mildred Edie Brady and Robert A. Brady. She has one sister, Judy.[1] Before becoming an author, she was a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet and the New York City Ballet then went on to study philosophy at Columbia University in New York City. In 1963, she married author Dexter Masters, her mother's former secret lover.[2] In 1965 they moved to England, and together had a son, Alexander Masters, who authored Stuart: A Life Backwards.[1] Her husband died in 1989, and she currently lives in Oxford, England.[3]
Works[edit]
Her first published book was The Impostor in 1979. In 1982, she published her autobiography, that appears under both the titles The Unmaking of a Dancer and Prologue: An Unconventional Life'.
Her third book and second novel, Theory of War, was hailed as a "modern work of genius" and earned the Whitbread Novel of the Year award, as well as the Whitbread Book of the Year award.[4][5] This book also won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and a US National Endowment for the Arts grant. Two novels followed, Death Comes for Peter Pan, an exposé of medical abuse in America, and The Emigre, the adventures of a conman.
Bleedout is her first thriller. She started writing crime fiction during a legal battle over fumes from a nearby shoemaker from which she won a large settlement.[6] Bleedout takes place against a backdrop of political and corporate corruption and follows two men, one a murderer, another his mentor in the process of being murdered as the action progresses. Its sequel Venom, published in 2010, introduces the theme of pharmaceutical ruthlessness in pursuit of a cure for radiation poisoning.
Bibliography[edit]
- The Impostor (1979)
- The Unmaking of a Dancer (1982) aka Prologue: An Unconventional Life (in UK)
- Theory of War (1993)
- Death Comes For Peter Pan (1995)
- The Emigré (1999)
- Bleedout (2005)
- Venom (2010)
- The Blue Death (2012)
- America’s Dreyfus: The Case Nixon Rigged (2015)
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Joan Brady : Author". Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ^ "Why I stole my mother's lover". Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ^ Theory of War 1996 Abacus edition author notes
- ^ "2014-Past-Winners" (PDF). Costa. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
- ^ Collins, Warwick (5 February 1994). "A modern work of genius". The Spectator. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
- ^ "Trouble in Totnes: Hippies need some reiki healing after novelist". 27 January 2008. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
External links[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1939 births
- Living people
- Costa Book Award winners
- Writers from San Francisco
- Columbia University alumni
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American novelists
- 20th-century British novelists
- 21st-century British novelists
- American women novelists
- British women novelists
- 20th-century American women writers
- 21st-century American women writers