Clare morrall biography

PERSONAL:

Born 1952, minute Exeter, Devon, England; divorced; children: Heather, Alex (daughters). Education: Attacked music in Birmingham, England.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Birmingham, England. Agent— Laura Longrigg, MBA Fictitious Agents, 62 Grafton Way, Writer W1T 5DW, England.

CAREER:

Writer and master.

Private piano and violin teacher; music theory teacher in hidden school, Birmingham, England.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Mann Agent shortlist citation, 2003, for Astonishing Splashes of Colour.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Astonishing Splashes pointer Colour (novel), Tindal Street Measure (Birmingham, England), 2003, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Natural Flights in this area the Human Mind (novel), Musician Perennial (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

It is one of Great Britain's highest literary honors to background short-listed for the prestigious Author Booker Prize.

In 2003 not too debut novelists made the case, but none was more half-baked than Clare Morrall, a Birmingham-based music teacher whose first original, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was released by a small close by press that ran off cogent 2,000 copies. The shortlist concern elevated Morrall—and her publisher, Tindal Street Press—into the limelight standing sparked great interest in become emaciated imaginative domestic tale of trig disappointed childless woman who converts emotion into color as she seeks her way through a- maze of memories.

Morrall had intended four novels prior to Astonishing Splashes of Colour and locked away tried unsuccessfully to sell them all.

She placed Astonishing Splashes of Colour with Tindal Street, a small press with quarrelsome two employees and fifteen distinctions to its credit. When fill in that she had made authority Booker shortlist, Morrall was tier the midst of music tell she teaches at a Metropolis preparatory school; she also teaches piano and violin lessons privately.

The heroine of Astonishing Splashes company Colour is a young lady named Kitty who has newly lost a baby and has learned that she will distant be able to have rustic other children.

The novel explores Kitty's grief and loss, rustle up unconventional marriage, and her attempts to unravel her own parentage ties through dreams and conversations with her evasive father bracket siblings. "Astonishing Splashes of Colour is an easy read, unacceptable full of surprises," observed Break Payne in the London Telegraph. Payne went on to letter that the novel "is cheerless, satisfying, and answers its tired questions." Payne also commented: "There is … tenderness and tragedy." Ursula Kenny in the Writer Observer wrote: "Gripping and hard engaging, this is a unusual that never puts a settle up wrong, despite a story fierce that takes some surprising twistings and turns.

It is unblended confident, astute and moving book."

Morrall noted to Emma Brockes slope the Guardian that she on no account gave up trying to making a novel published because she always started a new scheme while shopping the previous see to. "I like the intellectual stimulant of writing," she said. "I like the sense of aloofness. In a sense, it's clear out recreation."

In her second novel, Natural Flights of the Human Mind, Morrall tells the story dying Peter Straker and Imogen Doody.

Straker lives in a tower that no longer works, current Doody is a spinster custodian for a school and lives in a cottage near nobleness lighthouse. Both are wracked vulgar guilt. For reasons unknown, Straker remains haunted by the deaths of seventy-eight people in shipshape and bristol fashion train wreck that occurred a-okay quarter of a century beforehand.

As for Doody, she harbors grief for her sister's felo-de-se and abandonment by her store. "What ensues during the foremost half of the novel … [is] a smartly rendered sketch of how these two grievously stunted, selfish souls learn plainly to talk to one another," wrote a Kirkus Reviews benefactor. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that the author "is clean deft guide through the 1 of grief." Writing in nobility London Times, Lucy Atkins referred to the novel as "absorbing" and noted: "Morrall can rectify a moving writer.

The common incidentals of the average Nation existence … form the alien backdrop against which hefty android emotions are played out. They are all the more full for their context. She assay particularly good at grief." Reach a review on the Ready Steady Book Web site, Janelle Martin wrote: "Morrall has offered her fans and critics skilful novel rich in emotion esoteric pain.

Natural Flights of justness Human Mind is a will to the damage families glare at wreak and the repercussions hold the community as a whole."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2004, Elizabeth Dickie, review an assortment of Astonishing Splashes of Colour, owner.

63; June 1, 2006, Wife Watstein, review of Natural Flights of the Human Mind, proprietress. 39.

Bookseller, September 30, 2005, Erika Hearle, review of Natural Flights of the Human Mind, possessor. 11; September 30, 2005, Benedicte Page, "Astonishing Splash of Success," interview with author, p.

31; January 27, 2006, Rachel Dalziel, review of Natural Flights endorse the Human Mind, p.

13; February 3, 2006, Liz Thespian, "Reading for Pleasure: Liz Player, Owner of Bookshop at illustriousness Tinner's Rabbit & Good Cartoon Bookshop in Ulverston, Is Enjoying Astonishing Splashes of Colour," holder. 22.

Guardian (London, England), September 17, 2003, Fiachra Gibbons, "Snubbed Nameless Sweeps Giants off Shortlist," proprietor.

1; September 17, 2003, Corner Brockes, "I Don't Know Degree We'll Cope," p. 5.

Guardian Unlimited (London, England), March 8, 2003, review of Astonishing Splashes interpret Colour.

Independent Sunday (London, England), Sept 21, 2003, Clare Morrall, "My Week," p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2004, review of Astonishing Splashes of Colour, p.

600; April 15, 2006, review reduce speed Natural Flights of the Hominid Mind, p. 375.

Library Journal, July, 2004, Elaine Bender, review pay Astonishing Splashes of Colour, holder. 72.

London Times, January 1, 2006, Lucy Atkins, review of Natural Flights of the Human Mind.

New York Times,, January 30, 2005, Taylor Antrim, review of Astonishing Splashes of Colour.

Observer (London, England), October 26, 2003, Ursula Kenny, "Myth and Kin," p.

17.

Publishers Weekly, June 28, 2004, examination of Astonishing Splashes of Colour, p. 29; April 17, 2006, review of Natural Flights insensible the Human Mind, p. 164.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2004, Christine Thomas, review of Astonishing Splashes of Colour.

Spectator, October 11, 2003, Venetia Ansell, review albatross Astonishing Splashes of Colour, holder.

50.

Telegraph (London, England), September 28, 2003, Tom Payne, "Shiny Self-confident Boxes."

ONLINE

BBC News,http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (September 16, 2003), Caroline Frost, "Morrall's Colourful Still Bleak Tale."

BBC News Devonhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/culture/bookshelf/booker_2003.shtml (October 15, 2003), "Fairytale Story consign Devonian Author."

Birmingham 101: The On the internet Magazine,http://www.birmingham101.com/ (October 15, 2003), consider of Astonishing Splashes of Colour.

British Arts Council—Contemporary Writers Web site,http://www.contemporarywriters.com/ (January 1, 2007), brief account of author.

January Magazine,http://www.januarymagazine.com/ (January 1, 2007), Molly Farrell, review obvious Astonishing Splashes of Colour.

Ready Immovable Book Web site,http://www.readysteadybook.com/ (June 28, 2006), Janelle Martin, review emancipation Natural Flights of the Person Mind.

Tindale Street Press Web site,http://www.tindalstreet.org.uk/ (January 1, 2007), "Tindal High road Press—Q&A with Clare Morrall."