Judith Allnatt

Judith’s first publication was a rite of passage novel, A Mile of River, set in the one hundred day drought of 1976. It explores the darker side of family and the way that a parent can use a child’s need for love as a weapon and refuse them a right to their own identity. The novel was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature and was a Radio5 Live Book of the Month.
 
Inspired by the letters written by the poet John Clare from the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, The Poet’s Wife was Judith’s second novel. It gives a voice to Patty Clare as she faces John’s deluded belief that he is married to Mary Joyce, his childhood sweetheart, whom Patty can never hope to rival. The Poet’s Wife was shortlisted for the East Midlands book award.

Judith’s other novels are The Moon Field, set in WW1, and The Silk Factory, about a young woman to whom a strange child appears and an ancient connection to a silk-weaving family living in desperate times.
 
Judith lives in rural Northamptonshire and loves walking, reading, researching history and writing short fiction and poetry alongside her novels.