Liz Jensen

Liz Jensen was born in Oxfordshire, the daughter of a Danish father and a mother whose family were Moroccan Jews.{{cite web|url =http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/liz-jensen/|title = Liz Jensen|publisher = Fantastic Fiction|accessdate= 8 August 2010}}{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/liz-jensen-the-french-patient-45437.html | title=Liz Jensen: The French patient | work=The Independent }} She studied English at Somerville College, Oxford.{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/widgetContent/ReadingGuideOverlay/58?readingGuideId=58&pId=8301|title=The Rapture - Liz Jensen|website=www.bloomsbury.com|access-date=13 October 2018}}

She first worked as a print and radio journalist in Hong Kong and Taiwan.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/festivals/lit_fest/2004/adaptation.shtml |title=Gloucestershire Festivals - Anthony Minghella and Liz Jensen |publisher=BBC |date=2004-10-23 |accessdate=2010-04-16}} She then spent four years as a sculptor, translator and freelance writer in France,{{Cite web |title=Join the Goldster Club |url=https://www.goldster.co.uk/book-ahead-events/liz-jensen/ |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www.goldster.co.uk |language=en}} where she wrote her first novel, Egg Dancing (1995). She then returned to London to write Ark Baby (1998), The Paper Eater (2000), and War Crimes for the Home (2002). While living in the UK, Jensen also spent ten years working as a television and radio producer for the BBC.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005.{{cite web|url=http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |title=Royal Society of Literature All Fellows |publisher=Royal Society of Literature |accessdate=9 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |archivedate=5 March 2010 }} She is also a founder member of Extinction Rebellion's Writers Rebel.{{Cite web |title=About Liz |url=https://www.lizjensen.com/about-liz/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Liz Jensen |language=en-US}}

Her fifth novel was adapted into a film version, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, by Alexandre Aja in 2016.{{Cite news |last=Jensen |first=Liz |date=2016-09-02 |title=Liz Jensen: Seeing The Ninth Life of Louis Drax on screen is like meeting an eerie stranger |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/02/liz-jensen-9th-life-louis-drax-film-adaptation |access-date=2023-04-22 |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |last=Yamato |first=Jen |date=2014-08-27 |title='Fifty Shades Of Grey's Jamie Dornan To Star In Miramax's 'The 9th Life Of Louis Drax,' Alexandre Aja Directing |url=https://deadline.com/2014/08/miramax-jamie-dornan-9th-life-of-louis-drax-alexandre-aja-825527/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}} Her 2009 novel, The Rapture, is to be adapted into a five-part BBC One drama series starring Ruth Madeley.{{Cite web |last=Barraclough |first=Leo |date=2023-04-20 |title=Ruth Madeley to Star in BBC Adaptation of Liz Jensen's 'The Rapture' |url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/ruth-madeley-bbc-the-rapture-1235589836/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}

Jensen is married to the Danish writer Carsten Jensen, author of the critically-acclaimed novel We, the Drowned, which she co-translated into English as Emma Ryder.{{Cite web |date=2012-07-14 |title=Liz Jensen: Imagining the future of a haunted planet |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/liz-jensen-imagining-the-future-of-a-haunted-planet-7939245.html |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=The Independent |language=en}} Her younger son by her first marriage, Raphaël Coleman, a child actor-turned-climate change activist, died from an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 25 in 2020.{{Cite web |last=McElroy |first=Holly |date=2020-11-12 |title=Liz Jensen {{!}} Storytellers & the Climate Crisis |url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/storytellers-and-the-climate-crisis-with-liz-jensen/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Wales Arts Review |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Shoard |first=Catherine |date=2020-02-11 |title=Raphaël Coleman, Nanny McPhee star and climate activist, dies aged 25 |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/11/raphael-coleman-nanny-mcphee-star-and-climate-activist-dies-aged-25 |access-date=2023-04-22 |issn=0261-3077}}

File:Bookbits - 2009-11-03 Liz Jensen-The Rapture.vorb.oga

• Egg Dancing (1995)
• Ark Baby (1998)
• Paper Eater (2000)
• War Crimes for the Home (2002)
• The Ninth Life of Louis Drax (2004)
• My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time (2006)
• The Rapture (2009)
• The Uninvited (2012)

;Non-fiction

• Your Wild and Precious Life: On Grief, Hope and Rebellion (Canongate, 2024)

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.lizjensen.com/ Liz Jensen's Home Page]
• [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,480792,00.html The secret of writing a novel], article written by Jensen in The Guardian
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-ninth-life-of-louis-drax-by-liz-jensen-551560.html Review of The Ninth Life of Louis Drax] in The Independent
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022042930/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/my-dirty-little-book-of-stolen-time-by-liz-jensen-406157.html Review of My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time] in The Independent
• [http://www.tinhouse.com/books/catalog_ninthlife.htm The Ninth Life of Louis Drax] at Tin House Books {{ISBN|1-58234-457-4}}
• The Otherworlds of Liz Jensen: a Critical Reading, by Helen E. Mundler. Camden House, New York, 13 September 2016.

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1959 births

Category:Writers from Oxfordshire

Category:English women novelists

Category:Living people

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:English people of Moroccan descent

Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford

Category:English expatriates in Denmark