Joan Brady (American-British writer)
{{Short description|American-British writer (1939–2024)|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Joan Brady
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1939|12|4}}
| birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2024|6|13|1939|12|4}}
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| occupation = Writer
| language = English
| citizenship = United States (birthplace), United Kingdom{{explain citnat}}
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| period = 1979–2024
| genre = Biography, suspense fiction
| subject =
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| notableworks = Theory of War
| spouse = {{marriage|Dexter Masters|1963|1989|end=died}}
| children = Alexander Masters
| parents = {{plainlist|
- Robert A. Brady (father)
- Mildred Edie Brady (mother)
}}
| relatives = Judy Brady Syfers (sister)
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| website = {{URL|joanbrady.co.uk}}
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Joan Brady (4 December 1939 – 13 June 2024) was an American-British writer. She was the first woman and American to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for her novel Theory of War.
Biography
=Personal life=
Born Joan Brady on 4 December 1939, in San Francisco to Mildred Edie Brady and Robert A. Brady. She had one sister, Judy.{{cite web|url=http://www.joanbrady.co.uk/about.htm|title=Joan Brady : Author|accessdate=22 February 2017}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9279648/Why-I-stole-my-mothers-lover.html|title=Why I stole my mother's lover|accessdate=22 February 2017}} In 1965 they moved to England, and together had a son, Alexander Masters, who authored Stuart: A Life Backwards. Her husband died in 1989, and towards the end of her life she lived in Oxford, England.Theory of War 1996 Abacus edition author notes
Brady died from a heart attack brought on by sepsis, on 13 June 2024, at the age of 84.{{cite news |title=Joan Brady dies at 84 |url=https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/download_pdf.php?k=joan-brady-dies-at-84 |access-date=1 July 2024 |publisher=BookBrunch |date=18 June 2024 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |title=Joan Brady obituary: first woman to win the Whitbread book award |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/joan-brady-obituary-first-woman-to-win-the-whitbread-book-award-zsvbtgfvb |access-date=3 August 2024 |publisher=The Times |date=1 August 2024 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite web |title=Joan Brady obituary - Books |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/aug/14/joan-brady-obituary |date=14 August 2024 |website=The Guardian |publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited |access-date=19 January 2025}}
=Works=
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. 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 was 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/trouble-in-totnes-hippies-need-some-reiki-healing-after-novelist-fumes-over-shoes-774534.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220609/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/trouble-in-totnes-hippies-need-some-reiki-healing-after-novelist-fumes-over-shoes-774534.html |archive-date=9 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Trouble in Totnes: Hippies need some reiki healing after novelist|date=27 January 2008|accessdate=22 February 2017}} 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
- 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
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External links
- {{official website|http://www.joanbrady.co.uk/}}
- [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,2248542,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=10 Guardian Interview]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081010161841/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3265881.ece Article in the Times]
- [http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/interview_view.aspx?interview_id=66 Shots magazine interview]
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Category:Costa Book Award winners
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:20th-century British novelists
Category:21st-century British novelists
Category:American women novelists
Category:British women novelists