1. Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to an English father and a French mother, and lived above her grandparents' corner sweet shop until the age of three.
34 Facts About Joanne Harris
1. 2.
Harris's mother did not speak English when she married, and so Harris spoke only French until she started school.
3.
Joanne Harris attended Wakefield Girls' High School and Barnsley Sixth Form College.
4.
Joanne Harris studied modern and mediaeval languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
5.
Joanne Harris met her husband Kevin when they were both students at Barnsley Sixth Form College.
6.
Joanne Harris wrote three further novels in the Chocolat series: The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur le Cure, and The Strawberry Thief, as well as three French cookbooks.
7.
In 2007, Joanne Harris published Runemarks, a fantasy novel based on Norse mythology.
8.
In 2006, Joanne Harris published Gentlemen and Players, a psychological thriller set in the fictional boys' grammar school of St Oswald's, inspired by her time as a teacher.
9.
Joanne Harris has published three novellas, A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road, and Orfeia, loosely based on Child Ballads and illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, as well as two collections of short stories and numerous contributions to various charitable anthologies.
10.
Joanne Harris has published a Doctor Who novella, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller.
11.
Joanne Harris's books have now been published in more than 50 languages.
12.
Joanne Harris writes regularly for the press, and has written multiple travel pieces for The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and The Times, as well as articles on more literary themes.
13.
Many of Joanne Harris' books are about women who challenge the status quo and the way in which women are perceived in society.
14.
Joanne Harris regularly uses folklore and myth in her novels, giving a modern, original spin to traditional stories.
15.
Joanne Harris has been involved in a number of musical projects, including collaborating with Lucie Treacher and the Tete a Tete Opera Festival to create two mini-operas, performing with the Storytime Band and building a stage show based on her work, and co-writing and developing an original stage musical, Stunners, with Howard Goodall.
16.
Joanne Harris has judged the Orange Prize, the Whitbread Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, the Primadonna Prize, the Comedy Women in Print Award and the Winton Prize for Science Books.
17.
In 2024 Joanne Harris was announced as the chief judge of the new Entente Litteraire Prize for French and UK Young Adult novels, a joint initiative of Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron, sponsored by the Royal Society of Literature.
18.
Joanne Harris is a regular guest on radio and TV, appearing on Woman's Hour, A Good Read, Front Row, The Verb, The Wright Stuff, Question Time, Loose Ends, With Great Pleasure, Saturday Live, In Tune, and the Today programme.
19.
Joanne Harris appeared in two episodes of the TV series Inside Out: one in 2009 investigating the "real story" behind the death of Charlotte Bronte, the other 2010 on the topic of faith schools.
20.
Joanne Harris is active on social media, and in 2016 was nominated for a Shorty Award for her contributions.
21.
In 2021, Joanne Harris was a guest on BBC's Desert Island Discs, where her chosen book was the collected works of Victor Hugo, her luxury was her own shed, and the record she "would save from the waves" was Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now".
22.
Joanne Harris is a patron of the charities Medecins Sans Frontieres, to which she donated the proceeds of her cookery books, and Plan UK.
23.
Joanne Harris was chair of the management committee of the Society of Authors for two terms from 2020 to 2024, being unanimously re-elected to the position in March 2022.
24.
Joanne Harris assisted in several SOA campaigns, including calling for more investment in libraries and the arts, calling for translators to have their names on the cover of books, and raising awareness on author pay and conditions.
25.
In 2015, Joanne Harris launched a protest against the Clean Reader app, which had been designed to replace profanities in books with "clean" alternatives, calling it "censorship, not by the state, but by a religious minority".
26.
In 2022 a members' vote was raised calling for Joanne Harris to stand down as chair of the SOA, in relation to the society's stance on protecting free speech.
27.
Joanne Harris became a member of the Board of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society in 2019, and was re-elected in 2021.
28.
Joanne Harris stepped down from the post in 2024, having served two terms.
29.
Joanne Harris is the holder of honorary doctorates in literature from the University of Huddersfield and the University of Sheffield, and is an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
30.
Joanne Harris was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
31.
In 2022, Joanne Harris was named PinkNewss "Ally of the Year".
32.
Joanne Harris was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, and discussed the diagnosis and her ongoing treatment on social media and at the Hay Festival.
33.
Joanne Harris has stated that she has a form of synaesthesia "in which colours in bright light trigger scents".
34.
Joanne Harris suffers from seasonal affective disorder in winter.