Nicola Upson
{{short description|British novelist (born 1970)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Nicola Jane Upson (born 1970) is a British novelist, known for a series of crime novels featuring a fictional version of Josephine Tey as the heroine and detective.{{cite web|author=Mark Smith |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13412639.Nicola_Upson_s_enduring_love_for_Josephine_Tey/ |title=Nicola Upson's enduring love for Josephine Tey (From HeraldScotland) |publisher=HeraldScotland.com |date=2015-06-13 |access-date=2017-03-30}}
Biography
Upson was born in Suffolk, England in 1970, has a bachelor's degree in English from Downing College, Cambridge,{{cite web|url=https://www.faber.co.uk/author/nicola-upson/ |title=Nicola Upson | Authors | Faber & Faber |publisher=Faber.co.uk |access-date=2017-03-30}} and lives in Cambridge.
Work
Upson presents Tey as lesbian in her novels, and has said "It wasn't explicit, but there's no doubt in my mind ... I've got enough letters and interviews enough conversations with people who knew her well that make me certain that Josephine Tey was gay"; "writing their relationship and the things that have they have to consider and the way that gay women's voices to a large extent were silenced in the 1930s makes me realize how many things in my own life I take for granted".{{cite news |last1=Spencer |first1=Alex |title=Nicola Upson interview: 'Family tragedy inspired my latest novel' |url=http://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/whats-on/nicola-upson-interview-family-tragedy-inspired-my-latest-n-9256472-9256472 |access-date=25 June 2023 |work=Cambridge Independent |date=27 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625184439/https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/whats-on/nicola-upson-interview-family-tragedy-inspired-my-latest-n-9256472-9256472|archive-date=25 June 2023}}
Upson has said that the theme of separation in Dear Little Corpses (2022), which involves the disappearance of evacuees in 1939, came partly from her parents' deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: "I lost them both, not from Covid but during the Covid period; my dad died and then 10 days later, my mum died too. So that was tough. And although they didn't die of Covid the enforced separation affected them so much, but also, you feel very cheated at the time you couldn't be together".
Personal life
Upson's partner is the folk singer, novelist and radio presenter Mandy Morton.{{cite web |last1=Upson |first1=Nicola |title=Nicola Upson, author of Dear Little Corpses shares seven things she'd like her readers to know |url=https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/nicola-upson-dear-little-corpses-1351413.html |website=Female First |access-date=25 June 2023 |date=17 March 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Spencer |first1=Alex |title=Mandy Morton interview: Purrfecting the mystery of The Ice Maid's Tail |url=https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/whats-on/mandy-morton-interview-purrfecting-the-mystery-of-the-ice-maids-tail-9099791 |access-date=25 June 2023 |work=Cambridge Independent |date=14 February 2020}}
Novels
- An Expert in Murder (2008)
- Angel with Two Faces (2009)
- Two for Sorrow (2010)
- Fear in the Sunlight (2012)
- The Death of Lucy Kyte (2013)
- London Rain (2015)
- Nine Lessons (2017){{cite news |last= Goldsworthy |first= Kerryn |title= Nine Lessons review: Nicola Upson's stylish historical crime fiction |url= http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/nine-lessons-review-nicola-upsons-stylish-historical-crime-fiction-20171210-h02aoi.html| date= 14 December 2017|newspaper= The Sydney Morning Herald |location= Pyrmont, New South Wales | access-date= 20 December 2017 }}
- Stanley and Elsie (2019) – standalone novel
- Sorry for the Dead (2019)
- The Dead of Winter (2020)
- Dear Little Corpses (2022)
- Shot With Crimson (2023){{cite web | last=Upson | first=Nicola | title=SHOT WITH CRIMSON: Too much of a good thing. Less, please | website=Kirkus Reviews | date=7 November 2023 | url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nicola-upson/shot-crimson | access-date=9 September 2024}}{{cite web |author=Harriet| title=Shot with Crimson by Nicola Upson | website=Shiny New Books | date=24 January 2024 | url=https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/shot-with-crimson-by-nicola-upson | access-date=9 September 2024}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140614072041/http://www.nicolaupson.com/news/index.html Official website] (archived at the Wayback Machine)
- [https://twitter.com/nicolaupsonbook Nicola Upson] on Twitter
- [https://www.facebook.com/NicolaUpsonAuthor/ Nicola Upson] on Facebook
- [https://thejoysofbingereading.com/nicola-upson-josephine-tey-mysteries/ 2019 interview] with author Jenny Wheeler (includes transcript)
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NthBz9Lyjdo Interview], with Carol Ann Lee, Mandy Morton, and Nicola Upson, Felixstowe Book Festival 2017
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upson, Nicola}}
Category:British women novelists
Category:21st-century British novelists
Category:21st-century British women writers
Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge
Category:Writers from Cambridge
Category:English lesbian writers
{{UK-novelist-stub}}