Christina Hopkinson

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.

Christina Hopkinson the author of five novels, two non-fiction books and countless articles for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph. Between 2017 and 2020, she was the RLF Fellow at the London College of Fashion. She has a deep personal interest in education, with three secondary-school aged children and having volunteered as a literacy helper and chair of fundraising at their north London primary school. Previously, she has worked as a teacher both in the UK and in Spain, in children’s publishing and in launching websites for newspapers. She is thrilled to be joining the Bridge and only wishes she’d been able to benefit from something similar at school.