View source for Andrea Levy

{{Short description|English author (1956–2019)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2021}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{For|the Spanish politician|Andrea Levy (politician)}}
{{infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]]. -->
|honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL|size=100%}}
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1956|03|07|df=yes}}
|birth_place = [[London]], England
|death_date = {{death date and age|2019|02|14|1956|03|07|df=yes}}
|death_place =
|occupation = Author
|language = English
|education =
|period = 1994–2019
|genre =
|notableworks = ''[[Small Island (novel)|Small Island]]'' (2004)<br />''[[The Long Song]]'' (2010)
|spouse = Bill Mayblin
|awards = [[Orange Prize for Fiction]]<br />[[Whitbread Book Awards|Whitbread Book of the Year]]<br />[[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]]<br />[[Walter Scott Prize]]
|website = [https://andrealevy.co.uk/ Andrea Levy]
}}
'''Andrea Levy''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL}} (7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019)<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46897741 |title=Obituary: Andrea Levy |work=[[BBC News]]|date=15 February 2019 |access-date=19 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="lea">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/15/andrea-levy-chronicler-of-the-windrush-generation-dies-aged-62 |title=Andrea Levy, chronicler of the Windrush generation, dies aged 62 |first=Richard |last=Lea |date=15 February 2019 |access-date=15 February 2019 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref name="Innes">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/15/andrea-levy-obituary |title=Andrea Levy obituary |last=Innes |first=Lyn |author-link=Lyn Innes|date=15 February 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=18 February 2019 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> was an English author best known for the novels ''[[Small Island (novel)|Small Island]]'' (2004) and ''[[The Long Song]]'' (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to [[British Jamaican]]s and how they negotiate racial, cultural and national identities.<ref name="This is my England">{{cite news |first=Andrea |last=Levy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/feb/19/society1 |title=This is my England |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=19 February 2000 |access-date= 19 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/30/andrea-levy-long-song-interview |title='I started to realise what fiction could be. And I thought, wow! You can take on the world' – Andrea Levy interview |author=Younge, Gary |author-link=Gary Younge |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=30 January 2010|access-date= 19 February 2019}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Levy was of primarily [[Jamaicans of African ancestry|Afro-Jamaican]] descent. She had a [[History of the Jews in Jamaica|Jewish]] paternal grandfather and a [[Scottish people|Scots]] maternal great-grandfather.<ref name="This is my England" /> She said in a 2004 article: "Jews went to Jamaica in the 1600s. My paternal grandfather was born [[Orthodox Jewish]], from a very strict family, but after fighting in the [[First World War]] he became a Christian and came back and married my grandmother. His family disowned him, so I don't know much about them."<ref name=CaribbeanBeat>[[Marina Salandy-Brown|Salandy-Brown, Marina]] (November/December 2004). "[https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-70/was-not-small-story Andrea Levy: 'This was not a small story']". ''[[Caribbean Beat]]''. Issue 70. Retrieved 15 December 2023.</ref> Her father came to Britain on the {{HMT|Empire Windrush}} in 1948,<ref name="BBC" /> with her mother following later that year on a [[Banana boat (ship)|banana boat]].<ref name="lea" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Novel on J' can immigrants wins second literary prize |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-jan-27-2005-1043311/ |access-date=15 February 2019 |agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=[[The Gleaner (newspaper)|The Gleaner]] |date=27 January 2005 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=16 |via=[[Newspaperarchive.com]]}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=133627599&site=ehost-live |title=The Eloquent Voice of a Windrush Child |date=19 December 2018|work=Evening Standard |access-date=15 February 2019 |url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref>

Levy was born in [[Archway, London|Archway]], north London,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tribute to Andrea Levy, 1956–2019.|url=https://andrea-levy.muchloved.com/|access-date=25 August 2022 |website=Tribute to Andrea Levy, 1956–2019.|language=en-GB}}</ref> "the fourth, and baby, of the family, by a long way".<ref name=CaribbeanBeat /> She grew up on a council estate in [[Highbury]], also in north London, and had what she described as "the life of an ordinary London working-class girl".<ref name="Allardice" /><ref>{{cite web |first=Ruth |last=Scurr |url=http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1494049.ece |title=Andrea Levy's islands |work=[[The Times Literary Supplement]] |date=4 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223133400/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1494049.ece|archive-date=23 February 2015}}</ref> She attended [[Highbury Fields School|Highbury Hill Grammar School]]<ref name="BBC" /> and studied [[textile design]] and [[weaving]] at [[Middlesex Polytechnic]].<ref name="Allardice" />

== Career ==
Levy began her career as a costume assistant, working part-time in the costume departments of the [[BBC]] and the [[Royal Opera House]],<ref name="BBC" /><ref name="Allardice" /> while starting a graphic design company with her husband Bill Mayblin. During this time, she experienced a form of awakening to her identity concerning both her gender and her race.<ref name="Prasad" /> At a racial-awareness session with colleagues at an [[Islington]] sex education project, she found herself having to choose between a "white" and "black" side, which she found a "rude awakening".<ref name="lea" /> Having not read a book until the age of 23,<ref name=CaribbeanBeat /> she subsequently became aware of the power of books and began to read "excessively". It was easy enough to find literature by [[Jamaicans of African ancestry|black]] writers from the United States, but she could find very little literature from black writers in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Prasad">{{cite news |first=Raekha |last=Prasad |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/04/gender.uk |title=Two sides to every story |newspaper=The Guardian |date=4 March 1999}}</ref> (A similar recognition led [[Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)|Marsha Hunt]] in 1995 to initiate the [[Saga Prize]], for which Levy would become a judge.)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rsliterature.org/fellow/andrea-levy-3/|title=Andrea Levy remembered|first=Margaret|last=Busby|publisher=The Royal Society of Literature|access-date=31 March 2021}}</ref>

Levy began writing in her mid-30s, after her father died. It was not a therapeutic attempt to deal with her loss, but rather a need to understand where she came from.<ref name="Batson-Savage">{{cite news |last1=Batson-Savage |first1=Tanya |title=Late start, good results for Andrea Levy |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-may-29-2005-1043327/ |access-date=15 February 2019 |newspaper=[[The Gleaner (newspaper)|The Gleaner]] |date=29 May 2005 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |page=58 |via=[[Newspaperarchive.com]]}} {{open access}}</ref> In 1989, she enrolled in [[Alison Fell]]'s Creative Writing class at the [[City Literary Institute|City Lit]], continuing with the course for seven years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.citylit.ac.uk/news/article/104 |title=Interview with Andrea Levy |work=City Lit |date=30 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410030003/http://www.citylit.ac.uk/news/article/104 |archive-date=10 April 2014}}</ref>

Levy struggled initially to get her work published, her first novel being rejected by several companies that were unsure of how to market her writing.<ref name=lea /> She spoke in a 1999 interview of the "herd mentality" of publishers worried about the possibly limited market appeal of her work: "the main problem was that they perceived it as being just about race, and thought it would only appeal to black readers."<ref name=Hickman>{{Cite news |title=Andrea Levy: Under the skin of history |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/andrea-levy-under-the-skin-of-history-67727.html |first=Christie |last=Hickman |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |date=6 February 2004 |access-date=15 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Prasad" /><ref name="Batson-Savage" /> However, as [[Margaret Busby]] noted, Levy "proved that to write about... migration from the specific yet complex perspective of being a black English female is not a limitation to finding a wide and appreciative readership, but in fact the exact opposite."<ref name="Prasad" />

== Work ==
In 1994, Levy's first novel, the semi-autobiographical ''Every Light in the House Burnin{{'}}'', was published and attracted favourable reviews. The ''[[Independent on Sunday]]'' stated: "This story of a young girl in the 60s in north London, child of Jamaican migrants, stands comparison with some of the best stories about growing up poor – humorous and moving, unflinching and without sentiment".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/lazy-days-of-su-mmer-reading-1589515.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190217030249/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/lazy-days-of-su-mmer-reading-1589515.html |archive-date=2019-02-17 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |title=Lazy days of summer reading |newspaper=Independent on Sunday |date=2 July 1995}}</ref> Her second novel, ''Never Far from Nowhere'' (1996), is a [[coming-of-age story]] about two sisters of Jamaican parentage, Vivian and Olive, growing up in [[Finsbury Park]], London in the 1970s.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T7pVTz46T3cC&pg=PA297 |title=Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present |last1=Stade |first1=George |last2=Karbiener |first2=Karen |date=12 May 2010 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-1689-1 |page=297}}</ref><ref name="Prasad" /> It was long-listed for the [[Orange Prize]].<ref name=Hickman />

After ''Never Far from Nowhere'', Levy visited Jamaica for the first time and what she learned of her family's past provided material for her next book, ''Fruit of the Lemon'' (1999).<ref name=":0" /><ref name="BBC" /> The novel is set in England and Jamaica during the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] era, highlighting the differences between Jamaican natives and their British descendants. ''[[The New York Times]]'' noted the novel "illuminates the general situation facing all children of postcolonial immigrants".<ref>{{cite news |first=Uzodinma |last=Iweala |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/books/review/Iweala.t.html |title=Colonial Castoff |newspaper=The New York Times |date=11 February 2007 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref>

Levy's fourth novel, ''[[Small Island (novel)|Small Island]]'' (2004), which looks at the immediate outcomes of [[World War II]] and migration on what became known as the [[Windrush generation]], was a critical success.<ref name="Allardice">{{cite news |first=Lisa |last=Allardice |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/21/books.generalfiction |newspaper=The Guardian |title=Profile: Andrea Levy |date=21 January 2005}}</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s reviewer, [[Mike Phillips (writer)|Mike Phillips]], praised the writing and the subject matter, calling it Levy's "big book".<ref>{{cite news |first=Mike |last=Phillips |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/feb/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview10 |title=Roots manoeuvre |newspaper=The Guardian |date=14 February 2004}}</ref> Levy herself said in 2004: "When I started ''Small Island'' I didn't intend to write about the war. I wanted to start in 1948 with two women, one white, one black, in a house in [[Earls Court]], but when I asked myself, 'Who are these people and how did they get here?' I realised that 1948 was so very close to the war that nothing made sense without it. If every writer in Britain were to write about the war years there would still be stories to be told, and none of us would have come close to what really happened. It was such an amazing schism in the middle of a century. And Caribbean people got left out of the telling of that story, so I am attempting to put them back into it. But I am not telling it from only a Jamaican point of view. I want to tell stories from the black and white experience. It is a shared history."<ref name=CaribbeanBeat /> ''Small Island'' won three awards, the [[Whitbread Book Awards|Whitbread Book of the Year]], the Orange Prize and the [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/04/books.orangeprizeforfiction2005 |title=Small Island novel wins biggest Orange prize |newspaper=The Guardian |first=John |last=Ezard |date=4 October 2005 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref><ref name=bbc_si>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4305908.stm |title=Author Levy wins best of the best |work=BBC News |date=3 October 2005 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> The novel was subsequently made into a two-part [[Small Island (TV film)|television drama of the same title]] that was broadcast by the BBC in December 2009.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2009/dec/11/bbc-small-island-review |title=Small Island is a missed opportunity |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Tony |last=Dennis |date=11 December 2009 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> A stage adaptation written by [[Helen Edmundson]] premiered at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]]'s Olivier Theatre in 2019,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Small Island 2019 |url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/small-island-2019 |website=National Theatre |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030184104/https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/small-island-2019 |archive-date=30 October 2020}}</ref> returning in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Small Island|url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/small-island |access-date=25 August 2022 |website=National Theatre |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008053759/https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/small-island |archive-date=8 October 2022}}</ref>

Levy's fifth and final novel, ''[[The Long Song]]'', won the 2011 [[Walter Scott Prize]]<ref name=Alison>{{cite news |first=Alison |last=Flood |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/20/andrea-levy-wins-walter-scott-prize |title=Andrea Levy wins Walter Scott prize |newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 June 2011 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> and was shortlisted for the 2010 [[Man Booker Prize]].<ref name=manbooker>{{cite web |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/books/long-song-by-andrea-levy |title=The Long Song |date=19 February 2010 |publisher=The Man Booker Prizes |access-date=19 August 2021}}</ref> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' called it a "sensational novel".<ref>{{cite news |first=Holly |last=Kyte |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/7087391/The-Long-Song-by-Andrea-Levy-review.html |title=The Long Song by Andrea Levy: review |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=27 January 2010}}</ref> [[Kate Kellaway]] in ''[[The Observer]]'' commented: "''The Long Song'' reads with the sort of ebullient effortlessness that can only be won by hard work."<ref>{{cite news |first=Kate |last=Kellaway |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/07/the-long-song-andrea-levy |title=The Long Song by Andrea Levy |newspaper=The Observer |date=7 February 2010}}</ref> The novel was adapted as a three-part [[BBC One]] television series that was broadcast in December 2018.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Flora |last=Carr |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-12-20/the-long-song-lenny-henry-hayley-atwell-bbc1-start-date-cast-plot-andrea-levy |title=When is The Long Song on TV? Who's in the cast and what's it about? |magazine=[[Radio Times]] |date=20 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/dec/18/the-long-song-review-a-sharp-painful-look-at-the-last-days-of-slavery |title=The Long Song review – a sharp, painful look at the last days of slavery |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Lucy |last=Mangan |date=18 December 2018 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref>

Levy's short book ''Six Stories and an Essay'' was published in 2014.<ref>{{cite news |first=Chris |last=Dolan |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/books-poetry/reviews/andrea-levy-six-stories-and-an-essay-tinder-press.25842896 |title=Andrea Levy: Six Stories And An Essay (Tinder Press) |newspaper=Herald Scotland |date=15 November 2014}}</ref> It begins with an autobiographical essay and includes stories that are drawn from various life experiences.<ref>{{cite news |first=Katy |last=Guest |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/six-stories--an-essay-by-andrea-levy-this-is-a-slight-collection-but-full-of-important-insights-9875936.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223011202/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/six-stories--an-essay-by-andrea-levy-this-is-a-slight-collection-but-full-of-important-insights-9875936.html |archive-date=2015-02-23 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Six Stories & an Essay by Andrea Levy: This is a slight collection, but full of important insights |newspaper=The Independent |date=22 November 2014 |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> Levy contributed to the 2019 anthology ''[[Daughters of Africa#New Daughters of Africa|New Daughters of Africa]]'' (edited by [[Margaret Busby]]), which has enabled an [[Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award|annual scholarship]] at [[SOAS University of London]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/09/from-ayobami-adebayo-to-zadie-smith-meet-the-new-daughters-of-africa|title=From Ayòbámi Adébáyò to Zadie Smith: meet the New Daughters of Africa|first=Margaret|last=Busby|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://camdennewjournal.com/article/africas-new-daughters-celebrated-in-a-new-anthology|title=Africa's 'new daughters' celebrated in a new anthology|first=John|last=Gulliver|newspaper=[[Camden New Journal]]|date=15 March 2019}}</ref>

[[Bonnie Greer]] paid tribute to Andrea Levy: "For every great writer, their own story is in their work, and is all that you really need to know.... What she described was a people integral to what the UK is. Now and forever. And their bard, Andrea Levy, is immortal."<ref>Greer, Bonnie (21 February 2019), [https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/tribute-to-writer-andrea-levy-1-5900816 "Andrea Levy – An immortal British bard"], ''[[The New European]]''.</ref>

''[[The Bookseller]]'' noted in 2019 that, in the UK, Levy had sold "a total of 1.23 million books for £7.9m, with ''Small Island'' her bestseller, selling 758,203 copies in paperback and a further 120,749 for the TV tie-in. It is the biggest-selling winner of the [[Women's Prize for Fiction|Women's Prize]] to date."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/andrea-levy-bestselling-writer-small-island-dies-aged-62-953981|title=Small Island author Andrea Levy dies, aged 62|first=Mark|last=Chandler|magazine=The Bookseller|date=15 February 2019|access-date=31 March 2021}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
=== Documentary film "Andrea Levy: Her Island Story" (2018) ===
Levy was the subject of a film profile entitled "Andrea Levy: Her Island Story", first shown in December 2018 in [[Alan Yentob]]'s BBC One television arts documentary series ''[[Imagine (TV series)|Imagine]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bw9d69|title=Imagine...Andrea Levy: Her Island Story|publisher=BBC One|date=2018|access-date=17 February 2019}}</ref>

=== Radio profile "Andrea Levy: In Her Own Words" (2020) ===
The [[BBC Radio 4]] programme "Andrea Levy: In Her Own Words" was broadcast on 8 February 2020 in the ''[[Archive on 4]]'' series, drawing on an in-depth interview in 2014 with oral historian Sarah O'Reilly for the [[British Library]]'s Authors' Lives project, in which Levy spoke on condition that the recording would only be released after her death. The interview was accompanied by contributions from friends of Levy's including [[Gary Younge]], Baroness [[Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey|Lola Young]], [[Louise Doughty]], and [[Margaret Busby]], as well as Levy's husband Bill Mayblin.<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC Radio 4 – Archive on 4, Andrea Levy: In her own words|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f5zq|access-date=2022-08-25|website=BBC|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Younge|first=Gary|date=2020-02-05|title=Andrea Levy, my brilliant friend|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2020/02/gary-younge-andrea-levy-memorial-small-island|access-date=2022-08-25|website=New Statesman}}</ref>

=== Literary archive ===
It was announced in February 2020 that Levy's literary archive had been acquired by the British Library, including notebooks, research material, correspondence, emails and audio recordings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete Archive of award-winning novelist Andrea Levy (1956 – 2019) acquired for the nation|publisher=British Library|url=https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2020/february/andrea-levy|date=6 February 2020|access-date=2022-08-25|website=www.bl.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-02-06|title=Andrea Levy's literary archive acquired by British Library|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/06/andrea-levy-literary-archive-acquired-by-british-library|access-date=2022-08-25|first=Mark|last=Brown|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Paskett|first=Zoe|date=2020-02-06|title=British Library acquires Small Island novelist Andrea Levy's archive|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/british-library-andrea-levy-archive-a4355426.html|access-date=2022-08-25|website=Evening Standard|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Motune|first=Vic|date=2020-02-10|title=Windrush writer Andrea Levy's literary archive acquired by British Library|url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-news/2020/02/10/windrush-writer-andrea-levys-literary-archive-acquired-by-british-library/|access-date=2022-08-25|website=Voice Online|language=en}}</ref>

In 2023, the British Library reported that it had recovered previously unknown material from Levy's computer, including a planned TV series on nurse [[Mary Seacole]], an early draft of ''Small Island'', and work on a factual series on the detailed history of the Caribbean for the BBC that never came to fruition.<ref>{{cite news| last=Thorpe | first=Vanessa | title=Andrea Levy's notes on Mary Seacole brought to light by IT experts |newspaper=The Guardian | date=2 July 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/02/andrea-levys-notes-on-mary-seacole-brought-to-light-by-it-experts}}</ref>

=== Commemorative plaque ===
An [[Islington]] [[Blue plaque|Heritage Plaque]] was unveiled in Levy's honour on her childhood home at Twyford House, Elwood Street, in [[Highbury]], on 14 March 2020, at a ceremony attended by her husband Bill Mayblin and family members, Islington councillors, Baroness [[Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey|Lola Young]], and other friends.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.islington.media/news/author-andrea-levy-celebrated-with-islington-heritage-plaque|title=Author Andrea Levy celebrated with Islington Heritage Plaque|website=Islington Council News|language=en-GB|date=17 March 2020|access-date=2020-03-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gelder|first=Sam|date=17 March 2020 |title=Life and work of award-winning Highbury author Andrea Levy celebrated with plaque at her childhood home|url=https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/21225844.life-work-award-winning-highbury-author-andrea-levy-celebrated-plaque-childhood-home/|access-date=15 December 2023|newspaper=Islington Gazette|language=en-UK}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/books/2020/03/17/author-andrea-levy-celebrated-with-islington-heritage-plaque/|title=Author Andrea Levy celebrated with Islington Heritage Plaque|newspaper=[[The Voice (British newspaper)|The Voice]]|first=Milton|last=Boyce|date=17 March 2020}}</ref>

=== Royal Society of Literature pen collection ===
In November 2020 it was announced that Levy would be the first writer of colour whose pen would join the [[Royal Society of Literature]]'s historic collection, which includes pens belonging to [[George Eliot]] and [[Lord Byron]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/30/royal-society-of-literature-reveals-historic-changes-to-improve-diversity|title=Royal Society of Literature reveals historic changes to improve diversity|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Alison|last= Flood|date=30 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/arts-culture/2020/11/30/andrea-levy-becomes-first-writer-of-colour-to-have-pen-added-to-royal-society-of-literature-collection/|title=Andrea Levy becomes first writer of colour to have pen added to Royal Society of Literature collection|newspaper=The Voice|first=Alannah|last=Francis|date=30 November 2020}}</ref>

== Personal life and death ==
[[File:Levy, Andrea 2019.jpg|thumb|Levy's grave in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
Levy was married to Bill Mayblin.<ref name="BBC" /> She died on 14 February 2019, aged 62,<ref name="Innes" /> after living with [[metastatic breast cancer]] for 15 years, and her ashes were buried on the eastern side of [[Highgate Cemetery]].<ref name="BBC" />

== Awards and honours ==
*2004: [[Orange Prize for Fiction]], winner, ''Small Island''<ref name=bbc_si />
*2004: [[Whitbread Book Awards|Whitbread Book of the Year]], winner, ''Small Island''<ref name=bbc_si />
*2005: [[Commonwealth Writers Prize]], winner, ''Small Island''<ref name="Lawless">{{cite news|last1=Lawless|first1=Jill|title='Marginal' to mainstream|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28446910/lawless_jill_marginal_to_mainstream/|access-date=15 February 2019|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=[[Montreal Gazette|The Gazette]]|date=9 July 2005|location=Montreal, Canada|page=114|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{open access}}</ref>
*2005: Elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Andrea Levy|url=https://rsliterature.org/fellow/andrea-levy-3/|access-date=2022-08-25|website=Royal Society of Literature|language=en-GB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208034319/https://rsliterature.org/fellow/andrea-levy-3/ |archive-date=8 February 2019}}</ref>
*2010: [[Man Booker Prize]], shortlist, ''The Long Song''<ref name=manbooker />
*2011: [[Walter Scott Prize]] (''The Long Song'')
*2012: Honorary Fellowship of [[Queen Mary University of London]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/english/about/alumni/|title=Alumni and Fellows|publisher=School of English and Drama {{!}} Queen Mary University of London}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
*''Every Light in the House Burnin′'' (1994). [[Headline Publishing Group|Headline Publishing]], {{ISBN|9780747211778}}.
*''Never Far from Nowhere'' (1996). Headline, {{ISBN|9780747252139}}.
*''Fruit of the Lemon'' (1999). Review Publishing, {{ISBN|9780747273479}}.
*''[[Small Island (novel)|Small Island]]'' (2004). Review Publishing, {{ISBN|9780755307500|}}.
*''[[The Long Song]]'' (2010). Headline Publishing, {{ISBN|9780755383320}}.
*''Six Stories and an Essay'' (2014). Tinder Press, {{ISBN|9781472222671}}.
*''Uriah's War (short story)|Uriah's War'' (2014). Headline Publishing, {{ISBN|9781472222541}}.

== Further reading ==
*Blake, Robin. Review of ''Every Light in the House Burnin''', by Andrea Levy. ''[[The Independent]]''. 19 February 1995. 37.
*[[Robert Crampton|Crampton, Robert]]. "England's White, Unpleasant Land". Review of ''Never Far from Nowhere'', by Andrea Levy. ''[[The Times]]''. 10 February 1996. WE/13.
*Foster, Aisling. "On Being British". Review of ''Every Light in the House Burnin''', by Andrea Levy. ''The Independent''. 27 November 1994: 38.
*Gui, Weihsin. "Post-Heritage Narratives: Migrancy and Traveling Theory in V. S. Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival and Andrea Levy's Fruit of the Lemon". ''[[Journal of Commonwealth Literature]]'' 47.1 (2012): 73–89.
*{{cite book |title=Market Aesthetics: The Purchase of the Past in Caribbean Diasporic Fiction |last=Machado Sáez |first=Elena |publisher=[[University of Virginia Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8139-3705-2 |place=Charlottesville |chapter=Kinship Routes: Contextualizing Diaspora via the Market in Andrea Levy and David Chariandy}}
*Medovarski, Andrea. {{"'}}I Knew This Was England': Myths of Return in Andrea Levy's Fruit of the Lemon". ''[[MaComère]]'' 8 (2006): 35–66.
*Perfect, Michael. {{"'}}Fold the Paper and Pass It On': Historical Silences and the Contrapuntal in Andrea Levy's Fiction". ''[[Journal of Postcolonial Writing]]'' 46.1 (2010): 31–41.
*Shumway, Jacob Holt, [https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8435&context=etd {{"'}}Laughter Is Part of My War Effort': The Harmonizing and Humanizing Influences of Laughter in Andrea Levy's Small Island"] (thesis), [[Brigham Young University]], 2018.
*Toplu, Şebnem. [http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/anthurium/vol3/iss1/7/ "Home(land) or 'Motherland': Transnational Identities in Andrea Levy's Fruit of the Lemon"]. ''[[Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal]]'' 3.1 (2005).
*Welsh, Sarah Lawson, [https://theconversation.com/andrea-levy-her-important-body-of-work-set-out-what-it-is-to-be-black-and-british-111978 "Andrea Levy: her important body of work set out what it is to be black and British"], ''[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]'', 18 February 2019.

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
*{{official website}}
*{{British council |id=andrea-levy |name=Andrea Levy}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2blOukwJmNc "City Lit Fellow Andrea Levy"] (Mark Malcomson in conversation with Andrea Levy), City Lit. 5 December 2016.
*[[Gary Younge|Younge, Gary]] (30 January 2010). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/30/andrea-levy-long-song-interview {{"'}}I started to realise what fiction could be. And I thought, wow! You can take on the world{{'"}}] (interview). ''The Guardian''.
*[[Bonnie Greer|Greer, Bonnie]] (31 January 2004). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/31/fiction.race "Empire's child: Andrea Levy on Small Island"] (interview). ''The Guardian''.
*Barranger, Nicola. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190218021148/http://www.newbooksmag.com/left-menu/author-coverage/andrea-levy-the-big-interview.php "Andrea Levy – Addressing the Question of Slavery"]}}. ''NewBooks''.
*[https://www.bl.uk/people/andrea-levy Andrea Levy] at [[British Library]].

{{Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book Winners}}
{{Women's Prize for Fiction}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Andrea}}
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