Esther Freud
Template:Short description Template:DMCA Template:DMCA
Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.
Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for deprecated parameters".
Esther Freud (born 1963) is a British novelist, known for her autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992). She is the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud.
Early life and education
Born in London in 1963,[1] Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and painter Lucian Freud. She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud.[citation needed]
She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, returning to London at 16 to train as an actress at The Drama Centre.[citation needed]
Career
She has worked in television and theatre as both actress and writer. Her first credited television appearance was as a terrified diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bomb scare. A year later, she appeared as an alien in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen.[2] Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet.[3]
She is also the author of The Wild, Gaglow, and The Sea House.[4] She also wrote the foreword for The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.[citation needed]
Freud was named as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta magazine in 1993.[4] Her novels have been translated into 13 languages.[4] She is also the co-founder (with Kitty Aldridge) of the women's theatre company Norfolk Broads.[5]
In 2009, she donated the short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.[6] As of 2014, Freud taught at the Faber Academy.
Freud was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019.[7]
Personal life
Freud has a sister, fashion designer Bella Freud, and a half-brother, Noah Woodman. Her uncle was politician Sir Clement Freud. She has two cousins in the media industry; public relations executive Matthew and broadcaster Emma.[citation needed]
She was married to actor David Morrissey, with whom she has three children, Albie, Anna and Gene.[8] They married in 2006.[9] They had separated by 2020, when Freud began living with a boyfriend.[10] Freud maintains[when?] homes in London and Walberswick near Southwold in Suffolk.[citation needed]
Freud's maternal grandparents were Catholics but her mother was non-observant, while her father's Jewish family were atheists. She identifies as Jewish.[11][12][13]
Bibliography
Page Module:Message box/ambox.css has no content.
 |
Novels
- Hideous Kinky (1992)
- Peerless Flats (1993)
- Gaglow (1997)
- The Wild (2000)
- The Sea House (2003)
- Love Falls (2007)
- Lucky Break (2010)
- Mr Mac and Me (2014)
- I Couldn't Love You More (2021)
- "My Sister and Other Lovers" (2025)
Short fiction
- Stories
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desire | 2021 | Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Freud, Esther (27 September 2021). "Desire". The New Yorker. 97 (30): 72–78. |
See also
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Alice O'Keeffe (31 August 2014). "Esther Freud: 'I realised the book I'd been writing for 18 months was awful'". The Guardian.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Freud, Esther (4 April 2009). "I was an alien in Dr Who". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Hideous Kinky movie review & film summary review:". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.British Council. "Esther Freud - British Council Literature". britishcouncil.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."How we met: Kitty Aldridge and Esther Freud". The Independent. 9 January 1994. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
- ^ Oxfam: Ox-Tales Script error: No such module "webarchive".
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Freud, Esther". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."'Dad was quite a tyrannical critic,' Esther Freud". 9 July 2022.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Celebrity couple tie the knot in Suffolk". 14 August 2006.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Preston, Alex (29 May 2021). "Esther Freud: 'I didn't learn to read till I was about 10'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Interview: Esther Freud". The JC. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The NS Interview: Bella Freud, designer and campaigner". The New Statesman. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Bernardine Freud obituary". The Guardian. August 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
External links
Page Module:Side box/styles.css has no content.Page Template:Sister project/styles.css has no content.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Esther Freud". Biography. Contemporary Writers. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Penguin Readers' Book of the Month". Author of the Month. Penguin. 27 October 2007. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Esther Freud: 'I didn't learn to read till I was about 10'". TheGuardian.com. 29 May 2021. (review of I couldn't love you more)
Template:Lucian Freud Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.
