Joanne (Mich - Bibliography

Novelist, born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, N England, UK. The daughter of an English father and French mother, her childhood was spent living between Barnsley in South Yorkshire, and France. She studied at Cambridge and became a teacher of French at Leeds Grammar School (1989–99). Her first successful novel, Chocolat (1999; filmed 2000), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Award. Further books include Blackberry Wine (2000), Five Quarters of the Orange (2001), Holy Fools (2003), and Gentlemen and Players (2005).

She was educated at Wakefield Girls' High, Barnsley Sixth Form College and read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. After graduating, she began a career as an accountant but switched to teaching, eventually teaching French at Leeds Grammar School and later a French literature course at Sheffield University.

Her first novel, The Evil Seed, was published in 1989, but it and a second novel published in 1993 met with only marginal success. In 1999, her whimsical though slightly dark and mystical story titled Chocolat, based on food and an exotic locale in the Loire Valley of France, reached No. The book was shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and the movie rights sold to Miramax Pictures.

Bibliography

The Evil Seed (1989) Sleep, Pale Sister (1993) Chocolat (1999) Blackberry Wine (2000) Five Quarters of the Orange (2001) The French Kitchen, A Cook Book (2002) Coastliners (2002) Holy Fools (2003) Jigs &