13 Facts About Julia Darling

Julia Rose Darling was an English novelist, poet and dramatist.

Julia Darling's parents were John Ramsay Darling, a science teacher at Winchester College and Patricia Rosemary, who was a nurse and a Quaker.

Julia Darling later wrote about how the house's Austen connection meant they were constantly visited.

Julia Darling later wrote that as a teenager, she had put up anti-apartheid and pro-choice posters in her bedroom windows earning her a complaint from the Jane Austen Society.

Julia Darling attended Winchester High School for Girls and St Christopher School.

Julia Darling was expelled at 15 and attended Falmouth School of Art.

Julia Darling moved to Newcastle in 1980 and began her writing career as a poet, publishing a collection entitled Small Beauties in 1988 and working with a performance group called "The Poetry Virgins".

Julia Darling worked on a number of arts and health projects, including work with elderly people in residential homes for Equal Arts, and she ran drama workshops for doctors and patients with the project "Operating Theatre".

Julia Darling was a fellow of Literature and Health in the English School at Newcastle University and was a recipient of the prestigious Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award, the largest annual literary award in England.

Julia Darling was part of a writing group with Chrissie Glazebrook.

On 13 October 1984 Julia Darling married Ivan Paul Sears, a trade union organiser who later changed his name to Ieuan Einion.

In 1990, they divorced and Julia Darling began living with Beverley Anne Robinson.

Julia Darling was heavily involved in starting Proud Words, the first English lesbian and gay literary festival.