Louisa Young

Louisa Young is a British novelist, songwriter, short-story writer, biographer and journalist. By 2023 she had published seven novels under her own name and five with her daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young, under the pen name Zizou Corder. She has written three non-fiction books, The Book of the Heart (Flamingo, 2000), A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott (Macmillan, 1995; Lulu, 2012) and You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol (Borough Press, 2018), an account of her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart. Her most recent novel, Twelve Months and a Day, was published in June 2022 (Borough Press) in the UK, and in the US in January 2023 (Putnam). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Prizes Young's work has been nominated and shortlisted for prizes that include the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Costa Book of the Year, the Costa Novel of the Year, the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year Prize, which it won, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Wellcome Book Prize and the Folio Prize. It has been chosen by the Richard and Judy Book Club.

Early life Louisa Young was born in London, England, to the politician and writer Wayland Young (Lord Kennet) and Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet. She has five siblings, including the sculptor Emily Young. She was educated at Paddington's Hallfield Primary School, St Paul's Girls' School, Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where she read history.

Career Young worked as a sub-editor, a freelance columnist and feature writer on national publications, including The Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Daily Express, Marie Claire, Tatler, Bike 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. Then came three novels set in London and Egypt: Baby Love, Desiring Cairo and Tree of Pearls (Flamingo). Baby Love was listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

She co-authored five books for children with her daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young: Lionboy,

In 2011, she published My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, a First World War novel shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award and the Wellcome Book Prize, which 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 International Dublin Literary Award 2013, and was BBC Radio Four's Book at Bedtime in January 2012, read by Olivia Colman. It was the London Cityread choice for 2014 and has been sold in 15 languages. 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.

She has contributed to various anthologies, including I Am Heathcliff (ed. Kate Mosse), Underground; Tales for London (ed. Ann Bissell), A Love Letter to Europe (Coronet) and Of The Flesh (ed. Suzie Dorée).

Young's memoir You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol (Borough Press, 2018), covers her relationship with Robert Lockhart and addiction, talent, love, class and death.

Her novel Twelve Months and a Day was published in the UK by Borough Press in June 2022, and by Putnam in the US in January 2023.

Works

Fiction

Egypt trilogy Baby Love (London: Flamingo, 1997; Borough Press, 2015) Desiring Cairo (Flamingo, 1999; Borough Press, 2015) Tree of Pearls (Flamingo, 2000, Borough Press, 2015)

The First World War Trilogy My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You (HarperCollins, March 2011; Paperback: January 2012; US 2011) The Heroes' Welcome (Borough Press, May 2014) Devotion (Borough Press, June 2016)

Standalone Twelve Months and a Day (Borough Press, June 2022; Putnam 2023)

By Zizou Corder Zizou Corder is the joint pseudonym of mother-and-daughter co-authors Louisa Young and Isabel Adomakoh Young. Lionboy (Puffin, 2003) Lionboy: The Chase (Puffin, 2003) Lionboy: The Truth (Puffin, 2005) Lee Raven, Boy Thief (Puffin, 2007) Halo (Puffin, 2009) "The Intrepid Dumpling's Dugong Story", in The Just When Stories (Beautiful Books, 2010)

Non-fiction A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott (Macmillan, 1995); reissued by The Hydraulic Press, Lulu, 2012 The Book of the Heart (Flamingo, 2002) You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol (Borough Press, April 2018)

Radio Ruby Baby radio drama, BBC Radio 7, 2010 She Wiped the Surface and Put the kettle On, BBC Radio 4, read by Emma Fielding, 2012