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Image courtesy Text Publishing.
Madeleine St John Madeleine St John i(A33494 works by)
Born: Established: 12 Nov 1941 Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 18 Jun 2006 London,
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England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
Gender: Female
Expatriate assertion
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BiographyHistory

Madeleine St John is the daughter of Liberal Party politician Edward St John and a French mother, Sylvette Cargher. St John grew up in Castlecrag in Sydney's northern suburbs and was educated at Queenwood School for Girls, Mosman. She studied arts at the University of Sydney before marrying filmmaker Christopher Tillam and moving to the USA. After the marriage ended St John settled in England in 1968.

St John's short writing career produced four novels, all published during the 1990s. Her third novel, The Essence of the Thing (1997), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It forms the middle work in a loose trilogy, bookended by A Pure Clear Light (1996) and A Stairway to Paradise (1999). The three novels are set in Notting Hill, London, where St John spent most of her adult life.

St John suffered from emphysema for over a decade before her death. She was virtually a recluse during her final years. She also left behind an unfinished manuscript.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Essence of the Thing London : Fourth Estate , 1997 Z320906 1997 single work novel

'Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this brilliant novel from Madeleine St John, author of The Women in Black, is a comic and tender look at the vicissitudes of love and relationships.

'Nicola should never have stepped out to buy that pack of cigarettes, because the man she discovers in her living room when she returns is not the adorable, straightforward, devoted Jonathan with whom she has been sharing her life.

'That Jonathan would never have unilaterally decided that she should, as he abruptly put it, ‘move out’.

'A shocked Nicola packs her bags and sets out bravely on the bumpy course that will take her from the end of an affair to the essence of the thing.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)
1997 shortlisted The Booker Prize
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Last amended 21 May 2013 11:46:01
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