Skip to content

Bethan Roberts

Novelist, Short-story writer, Radio/tv/screenwriter

Bethan Roberts has published four novels and also writes drama for BBC Radio 4. Her novels The Good Plain Cook (Serpent’s Tail, 2008) and My Policeman (Chatto & Windus, 2012) both take their cue from the life of real people: E.M. Forster and his policeman lover Bob Buckingham in the case of My Policeman, and the eccentric art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the case of The Good Plain Cook. A radio play My Own Private Gondolier, broadcast in 2010 and starring Fiona Shaw, also explored the relationship between Peggy Guggenheim and her artist daughter, Pegeen. She is currently working on a novel of the life of Elvis Presley. Bethan’s career as a writer was kick-started in 2006 when she was awarded the Olive Cook Award for a short story by the Society of Authors. Her work is often concerned with notions of place. Her first novel The Pools, set in the shadow of the massive power station near which she grew up, won a Jerwood/Arvon award in 2007. Mother Island (Chatto & Windus, 2014) is partly set on the island of Anglesey, where her father was raised. She has taught creative writing for the Open University, the University of Chichester and at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has worked on television documentaries. Bethan lives in Brighton with her family.

Bethan Roberts
Image credit: Charlie Hopkinson

Fellowships

University of Sussex 2015-17
Back To Top