Rachel Billington
| Titles: | A Space Between, A Woman's Life, Lies and Loyalties, One Summer, Poppy's Hero |
| Category: | Fiction |
| Agent: | Andrew Gordon |
| Nicky Lund | |
| www.rachelbillington.com |
Rachel Billington has had nineteen of her novels for adults published and almost half as many published for children. Her column in the Sunday Telegraph ran for three years and she has also written for the screen and television. She was President of English PEN until 2000 and remains a Vice-President. In January 2012, she was awarded an OBE.
Billington's novels cannot be pinned down to any one recurrent theme or setting. A lover's escape to Chile (One Summer); a released prisoner searching for his past victim (Bodily Harm); a sequel to Jane Austen's Emma (Perfect Happiness) – these are just a few of her storylines. What does reoccur is the examination of the different sections of society and of what ties people together – and what pulls them apart. Her writing is partly influenced by her work with the national newspaper for prisoners, Inside Time. Billington also edited their poetry collection, Inside Poetry.
Her latest novel for adults, The Missing Boy, was published by Orion in May 2010 and her next, Maria and the Admiral, will be published in May 2012. In January 2012, Frances Lincoln published her latest novel for children, Poppy's Hero. Billington is married, has four children and five grandchildren, and lives in Dorset.
