Louisa Young

Early life

Louisa Young was born in London, England. Her father was the politician and writer Wayland Young, Lord Kennet. Her mother was Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet. She has several siblings, including the sculptor Emily Young.

Education

She was educated at Hallfield Primary School, Paddington; St Paul's Girls' School; Westminster School; and Trinity College Cambridge.

Career

She worked as a subeditor and freelance journalist on several publications including the Guardian (for which she wrote columns for many years), the Sunday Times, the Daily Express, Marie Claire (where she was lead feature writer and for a while Features Editor, under Glenda Bailey), Tatler, Bike Magazine, and Motorcycle International. She also worked at various stages as a despatch rider, a busker (double bass and vocals), a waitress, a kitchen-hand and a shop assistant. Her first book, A Great Task of Happiness, a biography of her grandmother Kathleen Scott, widow of Captain Scott of the Antarctic, was published by MacMillan in 1995 (paperback 1996, ISBN 978-0333656570), and reissued as a POD on Lulu in 2012. It was followed by three novels set in London and Egypt: Baby Love, Desiring Cairo, and Tree of Pearls (Flamingo), which were reissued by The Borough Press in 2015. Baby Love was listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction. They were followed in 2002 by The Book of the Heart (Flamingo), a cultural history symbolism involving the heart, covering its historical role in art, religion, love and anatomy. In 2007, she was a curatorial advisor for the Wellcome Foundation's exhibition The Heart, which was inspired by her book.

She co-authored with her daughter five books for children: Lionboy, Lionboy: The Chase, Lionboy: The Truth, Lee Raven, Boy Thief, and Halo. The Lionboy trilogy was sold in 36 languages. Halo was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize in 2010, and nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2011. The film rights have been sold three times, including to Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks. A stage production by Theatre de Complicite, directed by Annabel Arden, adapted by Marcelo dos Santos with Annabel Arden, Louisa Young and the company, and starring Adetomiwa Edun opened in 2013 at the Bristol Old Vic and toured the UK, to very favourable reviews. The show was reprised at the Tricycle Theatre London, The New Victory Theatre New York, and in Hong Kong and South Korea 2014/15.

In 2011, she published My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You (HarperCollins), a First World War novel which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award and the WellcomePrize, and won the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year Award 2012, read by actor Dan Stevens and with music by Robert Lockhart. It was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club in 2012; nominated for the Impac Award 2013, and was BBC Radio Four's Book at Bedtime in January 2012, read by Olivia Coleman. It was the London Cityread choice for 2014, and has been sold in 15 languages. A film based on the novel is in development. The Heroes' Welcome, a sequel, was published in the UK in 2014, and nominated for the Folio Prize that year. Devotion, the third book in the series, was published in June 2016. Film rights to My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You have been sold.

From 2009–11, Louisa Young was writer in residence at Holland Park School, and from 2010–11 at Queens Park Comprehensive, with the creative writing charity First Story.

Personal life

Her daughter and co-author Isabel Adomakoh Young was born in 1993. Louisa was engaged to the composer and pianist Robert Lockhart, who died in 2012.

Works

Zizou Corder is the joint pseudonym of mother-and-daughter co-authors Louisa and Isabel Adomakoh Young.