Christina Hopkinson is a novelist and journalist specialising in writing about contemporary issues in a witty and incisive way — reviews of her work in the national press invariably include the word sharp (‘sharp-eyed, ‘razor sharp’, ‘sharp, funny and deliciously rude’).
Her five novels, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, include The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs, which explores the pressures and gender battles of a couple with young children. The price of fame for the innocent child of two celebrities is looked at in The A-List Family, while her latest novel, The Weekend Wives, fictionalises the growing trend for families to live apart in order to combine rural idyll with a city salary.
She writes nonfiction features for magazines and newspapers including the Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Times, Grazia and Red magazine. These articles, like her novels, examine the quirks of modern living: what being married to a divorce lawyer can teach you about marriage; the dangers of décor obsessiveness; how to make long-distance relationships work.
Before the publication of her first novel in 2004, she worked in teaching, children’s publishing and journalism in London and Madrid, having graduated from the University of Oxford with a history degree. She now lives in London with her husband, three children and a Welsh Terrier and is a literacy volunteer at her children’s primary school, reflecting her strong belief that with great reading comes good writing.
