Scarlett Thomas

Scarlett Thomas (born 1972 in Hammersmith) is an English author. She has written nine novels, including The End of Mr. Y and PopCo, and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

She is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, and a boarding school for eighteen months. During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War. She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the University of East London from 1992-1995.

Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Her next three novels - Bright Young Things (2001), Going Out (2002), and PopCo (2004) - took her away from genre fiction, and she used them to "explore what it means to be trapped in a culture where your identity is defined by pop culture."

Her next novel, 2006's The End of Mr. Y brought her a new level of success, and was sold in 22 countries. She shares with Ariel, the protagonist in The End of Mr. Y, a wish to know everything:

"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."

Her eighth novel, Our Tragic Universe, was published in 2010 and was originally to be titled Death of the Author.. She recently studied towards an MSc in ethnobotany, informing her ninth novel, The Seed Collectors which was published in 2015.

Away from writing fiction, she has taught Creative Writing at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London . She reviews books for the Literary Review, the Independent on Sunday, and Scotland on Sunday. She has also served as a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008) jury, along with Director Iain Softley and presided over by actor Danny Huston

She is currently working on a book called "41-0" about her year of tennis.

In 2001 she was named by The Independent as one of 20 Best Young Writers.

In 2002 she won Best New Writer in the Elle Style Awards, and also featured as an author in New Puritans, a project led by the novelists Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoe consisting of both a manifesto and an anthology of short stories.

• Dead Clever (1998)
• In Your Face (1999)
• Seaside (1999)
• Bright Young Things (2001)
• Going Out (2002)
• PopCo (2004)
• The End of Mr. Y (2006)
• Our Tragic Universe (2010)
• The Seed Collectors (2015)

• Brother and Sister and Foot - Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, August 2005
• Interlude - Product Magazine, Winter 04-05
• The Whole Country - Zembla Magazine, Summer 2004
• Why My Grandmother Learned to Play the Flute - Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, November 2003
• The Old School Museum - Big Night Out, HarperCollins, 2002
• Debbie’s Dreams - The Stealth Corporation magazine, 2002
• Goldfish - Butterfly Magazine, Issue 5, 2000
• Mind Control - All Hail the New Puritans 4th Estate, 2000
• Five Easy Ways with Chilli - 2008

• Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories (2012)