Louise Doughty

Louise Doughty is an English novelist and screenwriter.

She is best known for her bestselling novels, including Apple Tree Yard.

She has also worked as a cultural critic for newspapers and magazines.

Doughty was born on 4 September 1963 in Melton Mowbray and grew up in Oakham, Rutland.

She attended Oakham School and is an alumna of Leeds University and of the University of East Anglia.

She has lectured and contributed on creative writing in several countries of the world.

She is the author of nine novels, five plays for radio and a TV mini-series.

Doughty was the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read in 1998 to 2001.

Her weekly column for The Daily Telegraph was published as A Novel in a Year in 2007.

Doughty's sixth novel, Whatever You Love, was short-listed for the Costa Book Award for fiction in 2010, and long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2011.

In 2013, her seventh novel entitled Apple Tree Yard, was published and became a number one bestseller, selling over half a million copies in the UK alone.

It has also been translated in thirty territories worldwide.

Apple Tree Yard, was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Choice in the spring of 2014.

Hilary Mantel commented on the novel, "There can’t be a woman alive who hasn't once realised, in a moment of panic, that she's in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man. Louise Doughty... leads her unnerved reader into dark territory. A compelling and bravely written book."

Her short story "Fat White Cop with Ginger Eyebrows" was long-listed for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

Doughty is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Her novel Black Water, (2016) was nominated as one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

A four-part television adaptation of the same name was broadcast on BBC One in January 2017.

The series, which starred Emily Watson in the lead role and adapted by Amanda Coe, received widespread critical acclaim and consolidated viewing figures of 7 million per episode, making it the most-viewed new BBC drama at that time since The Night Manager.

Her most recent book, Platform Seven (2019), was adapted as a four-part drama, by Paula Milne, with Dancing Ledge Productions for ITV in 2023.

Her third novel, Honey-Dew, is under option with Chapter One pictures and she is working on a series outline.

In her first original drama for television, Doughty wrote the three-part thriller Crossfire, about a gun attack on a holiday resort, made by Dancing Ledge Productions for BBC One.

It stars Keeley Hawes and was broadcast on 20, 21 and 22 September 2022.

She is also an executive producer on the series.

Doughty now lives in London.

In 2019, she received an honorary doctorate (D.Litt.) from the University of East Anglia.