Rachel Joyce (writer)

Rachel Joyce (born 1962) is a British writer. She has written plays for BBC Radio 4, and jointly won the 2007 Tinniswood Award for her radio play To Be a Pilgrim.^[1][2] Her debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, was on the longlist for the 2012 Man Booker Prize,^[3] and in December 2012 she was awarded the "New Writer of the Year" award by the National Book Awards for this book.^[4]

She had an earlier career as an actress,^[5] and has said that between her first writing ambitions aged 14 and the writing of her first novel she was "a young woman, a mother, an actress, a writer of radio drama - not to mention a terrible waitress in a wine bar, a door-to-door sales girl for one morning, and an assistant in a souvenir shop".^[6]

She is married to actor Paul Venables, and lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and four children.

She is the sister of actress Emily Joyce.

Books

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2012, Doubleday: ISBN 9780857520647)
• Perfect (2013, Doubleday: ISBN 9780857520661)
• The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (2014, Doubleday: ISBN 9780857522450)^[7]
• A Snow Garden and Other Stories (2015, Doubleday: ISBN 978-0857523532)
• The Music Shop (2017, Doubleday: ISBN 978-0857521927)^[8]
• Miss Benson's Beetle (11 June 2020, Penguin: ISBN 9780857521989)^[9]
• Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North (20 October 2022, Doubleday: ISBN 978-0-85752-900-8^[10])

Theatre

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (book of stage musical, based on the novel) - due to open in May 2025 at Minerva Theatre, Chichester

Awards

• Tinniswood Award, 2007 (joint award), for To Be A Pilgrim^[11]
• French Literary Award ("Prix Littéraire des Jeunes Européens, 2014 France) for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
• Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, 2021, for Miss Benson's Beetle^[12]