Isabel Ashdown

Biography

Isabel Ashdown was born in London and grew up in East Wittering on the south coast of England. She is the author of five novels, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, and a member of the Society of Authors. After giving up a career in marketing, she studied English & Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, UK, where she was awarded The Hugo Donnelly Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement and completed her MA with distinction. In 2014 she was Writer in Residence at the University of Brighton, where she has also taught.

An extract from her debut novel Glasshopper won The Mail on Sunday Novel Competition judged by Fay Weldon and the late Sir John Mortimer, going on to be named as one of the best books of 2009 in The Observer and the London Evening Standard.

She went on to release a further three novels with Myriad Editions before more recently signing with Trapeze Books, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group. Her latest novel Little Sister (2017) sees the author move into the territory of psychological thriller, and is set to be published across several languages.

In 2014 her essay Voice and the Inescapable Complexity of Experience was published in Karen Steven's academic anthology Writing a First Novel (Palgrave MacMillan, 2014).

Isabel Ashdown is represented by The Viney Agency, London.

She now lives in West Sussex with her carpenter husband, their two children and their dogs. Together with Leonard the dachshund, she is a proud volunteer for the charity Pets As Therapy under their Read2Dogs scheme, an initiative aimed at nurturing confidence in young readers and promoting a lifelong love of books.

Critical response

"Isabel Ashdown is adept at portraying the bickering normalcy of ordinary family life." The Press Association

"Ashdown’s storytelling skills are formidable; her human insights highly perceptive." Mail on Sunday

"Incredibly perceptive ... just when you think you know what is going to happen, Ashdown subverts your expectations." We Love This Book

"An immaculately written novel with plenty of dark family secrets and gentle wit within. Recommended for book groups." Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

"A tender and subtle novel about alcoholism that explores difficult issues in deceptively easy prose. A wonderful debut – intelligent, understated and sensitive." Observer Books of the Year 2009

"A disturbing, thought-provoking tale of family dysfunction, spanning the second half of the 20th century, that guarantees laughter at the uncomfortable familiarity of it all." London Evening Standard Best Books of 2009

"Ashdown’s Glasshopper was one of our favourite books of 2009, and her second novel is another mix of compelling characters and 1980s nostalgia." Bella Magazine

"A brilliant debut." Sainsbury’s Magazine

"A heartbreaking redemptive tale of family secrets that will take you on an emotional rollercoaster." Glamour Magazine

"Carefully observed, unexpected and mesmerisingly beautiful." Easy Living

"Glasshopper is skilfully written and hard to put down. A page-turningly good read ... a perceptive insight into alcohol’s hidden harm." Drink & Drugs Review