Marianne Kavanagh

Marianne Kavanagh is an author and journalist. Her first two novels were translated into eight languages and sold all over the world. Her third and fourth novels are published by Hodder & Stoughton: Should You Ask Me is set in 1944, just before D-Day, and looks back to a horrific crime in the 1870s, and Disturbance is a contemporary psychological drama about a woman driven to the edge by rejection and betrayal.

As a journalist, Marianne started out on Woman magazine, became chief sub of the Tatler and the Telegraph Saturday magazine, and joined Marie Claire as deputy editor, overseeing both production and features. She has always been passionate about protecting each writer’s individual voice, believing that the best magazines have pace and depth because of their contributors’ different styles. After Marie Claire, she went freelance, writing features for national magazines, newspapers and websites – everything from the Guardian to Good Housekeeping – and editing nonfiction books and articles for charities and small businesses.

An English graduate from Newnham College, Cambridge, Marianne has taken on various voluntary roles in education, including working as a school governor, teaching martial arts, and leading a successful grassroots campaign for a new state-secondary school. She recently set up South East London Authors, an informal association of local novelists who support each other and help new writers. She has three grown-up children – a financial journalist, a stand-up comedian and a textiles designer – and lives in south-east London with her husband Matt and two very annoying cats.

Marianne Kavanagh is a journalist and author. She worked for many years for national newspapers and magazines – as a commissioning editor, production editor and freelance features writer – before turning to fiction, and has now published four novels. Her interest in education led her to run a successful campaign in south-east London for a new state secondary school, where she became chair of governors. She was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Goldsmiths University from 2020 to 2022 and loved helping students at all levels – from pre-university courses to PhDs – with their academic writing, concentrating on communication, clarity and structure.