Angela Clarke (writer)

Angela Clarke is a British author, columnist, and playwright who has written for Cosmopolitan, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The Vagenda, and The Wharf. She wrote Daily Mail's anonymous column "Confessions of a Fashionista", recounting her experience working as an agent in the fashion industry. In 2013, she revealed her identity when she published a memoir of the same name. Her debut play The Legacy premiered in June 2015 and her first fictional crime novel Follow Me was released in December 2015.

Angela Clarke
Born1980/1981 (age 39–40)[1]
Occupation
  • Author
  • columnist
  • playwright
Alma mater
SpouseSam Williams
Website
angelaclarke.co.uk

Education

Clarke is from St Albans, a city in Hertfordshire, England, and grew up in Redbourn and Watford, attending Redbourn Junior School and Roundwood Park School in Harpenden.[2][3][4][5] She studied English and European literature at the University of Essex and completed the "Advances in Scriptwriting" course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[6]

Career

Clarke is an author, columnist, and playwright who has written for Cosmopolitan, Daily Mail, The Guardian,[7] The Independent, The Vagenda,[8] and The Wharf.[6][9][10] She has written The Wharf's "Blonde's Eye View" column since 2003.[11]

Prior to becoming a writer, she worked as a creative agent in the fashion industry for ten years.[1][6][8][12] Daily Mail published her anonymous column "Confessions of a Fashionista", in which she wrote about her experience working in the industry.[13][14][15] Clarke revealed her identity and true account with the release of her best-selling memoir of the same name, which was published by Virgin Books in January 2013.[12][16]

Chugging for Kittens, Clarke's single-scene playlet about two people collecting donations for a cat charity, premiered in 2015.[17][18][19] Her debut full-length play The Legacy, which is set in Harpenden,[2][20] premiered at Islington's Hope Theatre in June 2015.[6][21][22] The comedy drama is about a feminist activist living in the suburbs.[20] In July 2015, Clarke was awarded the Young Stationers' Prize for "achievement and promise in writing and publishing".[2][6][23] She signed a two-book deal with Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins, in October 2015.[24]

Her debut fictional crime novel Follow Me was released in December 2015.[6] Its narrative includes the "Hashtag Murderer", an Internet troll who leaves clues online about possible victims.[25][26] Clarke has been a victim of online harassment herself, especially after writing an article about feminism for The Guardian.[3][25][14] The book sold more than 12,000 copies in the first three weeks and reached number 43 on the paperback fiction chart.[27] In January 2016, Clarke hosted the book's launch event at Waterstones in St Albans. That same month, Follow Me was named Amazon.com's "Debut of the Month".[28] Clarke was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association's 2016 Dagger in the Library Award,[29] and Follow Me was short listed for the Dead Good's "Papercut Award for Best Page Turner".[30] Her book Watch Me is scheduled to be published in January 2017.[31][32][33]

In addition to writing, Clarke works as a reader for The Literary Consultancy and is a public speaker.[9][34][35] In 2013, she discussed her book Confessions of a Fashionista at the inaugural St Albans Fashion Week (SAFW).[4] She returned to SAFW the following year to host the VIP dinner event "Sharing a taxi with Alexander McQueen and other stories".[36][37] In 2014, she participated in "A Girls' Night Out" alongside three women's fiction novelists as part of the inaugural St Albans Literary Festival.[38] She was on the festival's "Killer Women Crime Fiction Panel" in 2016.[31] In September 2016, she was a panellist at the crime writing festival Noirwich and participated in the School of Logical Progression's (Royal Society of Arts) "Meet a Mentor Programme".[39]

Personal life

Clarke is married to economist Sam Williams.[1]

In April 2012, Clarke was diagnosed with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS) III, an inherited connective tissue disorder caused by a defect in the structure, production, or processing of collagen or proteins that interact with collagen.[1][9][12] She has said about her disorder: "My condition has made me look at things in a different way. But it is also a good thing because I'm white, middle class and live in St Albans, I'm comfortable – all things that make me pretty standard, and having a disability makes me other, and gives me different viewpoint on things and that's a good thing when you are writing."[3]

List of works

Books
  • Confessions of a Fashionista: The Good, the Bad and the Botox (2013)[40][41]
  • Follow Me (2015)[42]
  • Watch Me (2017)

Plays
  • Chugging for Kittens (2015), a one-scene playlet
  • The Legacy (2015)
gollark: Did Coltrans just WARN HELLOBOI?!
gollark: Or "Ester", "Esot", that sort of thing. Actually, are there good synonyms for "esoteric"?
gollark: Short for ESolangs IDE.
gollark: That seems like a nice name.
gollark: Eside?

References
  1. Law, Katie (6 February 2013). "Does my stick look big in this? How a fashionista realised her stiletto agony was a crippling condition". London Evening Standard.
  2. Crockett, Sophie (4 August 2015). "St Albans playwright, Angela Clarke, scoops award". The Herts Advertiser.
  3. Enfield, Laura (16 December 2015). "Author Angela Clarke has an amazing way of dealing with online trolls". St Albans and Harpenden Review.
  4. Enfield, Laura (28 October 2013). "Watford fashionista Angela Clarke will be talking about her book at the first ever St Albans Fashion Week". Harrow Times.
  5. Smith, Brian (14 February 2013). "Confessions of a Fashionista – Angela Clarke in print!". Roundwood Park.
  6. "Angela Clarke". HuffPost. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  7. "Angela Clarke". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  8. "Angela Clarke: Biography". Penguin Books. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  9. "TLC Editor Angela Clarke Wins Young Stationers' Prize 2015". The Literary Consultancy. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  10. Clarke, Angela (8 June 2015). "Inside View: How to get from page to stage". The Wharf.
  11. "Angela Clarke". The Wharf. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  12. Hoggard, Liz (1 December 2015). "When being super-flexible is bad for your health". The Times. News UK. ISSN 0140-0460.
  13. Karsten, Lucy (24 March 2013). "Confessions of a Fashionista and Other Work-Woes". HuffPost.
  14. Crockett, Sophie (22 December 2015). "St Albans novelist's follow-up book is a backlash against Twitter trolls". The Herts Advertiser.
  15. Hall, Monique (25 April 2013). "St Albans Fashionista at Waterstone's evening". The Herts Advertiser.
  16. "Confessions of a Fashionista: Angela Clarke". Penguin Books. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  17. Eastham, Terry (30 April 2015). "Briefs at Waterloo East Theatre". London Theatre 1.
  18. "Breakfast Show Playlist Announced!!!". BiteSizePlays. White Room Theatre. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  19. "Chugging for Kittens". West Avenue. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  20. Crockett, Sophie (7 June 2015). "Harpenden is setting for new comedy drama play". The Herts Advertiser.
  21. "The Cast and Team". The Legacy. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  22. "The Legacy". The Hope Theatre. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  23. Young Stationers' Prize
  24. "Avon awake to Clarke". TheBookseller.com. 16 October 2015.
  25. Forshaw, Barry (11 December 2015). "Crime Fiction round-up: Bad blood and a bone-cold Amsterdam turn up heat". The Independent. ISSN 0951-9467. OCLC 185201487.
  26. "BBC Radio 4: Saturday Review: The Danish Girl, War and Peace, Deutschland 83, Angela Clarke Follow Me, Fallout 4 and Her Story". BBC. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  27. Enfield, Laura (28 January 2016). "Your chance to meet the St Albans author who took on her Twitter trolls in print". Croydon Guardian.
  28. Crockett, Sophie (28 January 2016). "St Albans author says Follow Me to book launch event". The Herts Advertiser.
  29. "CWA Dagger in the Library: This Year's Winners". Crime Writers' Association. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  30. "The Dead Good Reader Awards 2016 Shortlists". Dead Good. 17 June 2016.
  31. "Angela Clarke". St Albans Literary Festival. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  32. "Watch Me by Angela Clarke". HarperCollins. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  33. "Watch Me (Social Media Murders 2) Paperback – 12 Jan 2017". Amazon.com. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  34. "Inside the Industry: Angela Clarke". University of the Arts London. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  35. "The 2015 Young Stationers' Prize Shortlist" (PDF). The Stationers' Company. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016 – via Prima Software.
  36. "St Albans Fashion Week 2014" (PDF). St Albans Fashion Week. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  37. Montague-Ebbs, Rachel (30 September 2013). "Is This the Longest Fashion FROW in the UK?". HuffPost.
  38. "St Albans' First Literary Festival". All About St Albans. 24 October 2014.
  39. "Brit Noir". Noirwich. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  40. Clarke, Angela (17 January 2013). Confessions of a Fashionista. Random House.
  41. Clarke, Angela (27 November 2014). Confessions of a Fashionista. Random House.
  42. "Book Details: Follow Me – Angela Clarke – Paperback". HarperCollins. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
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