Jennifer Johnston | |
---|---|
Born | Dublin, Ireland | 12 January 1930
Occupation | Novelist |
Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
Relatives |
|
Jennifer Johnston (born 12 January 1930) is an Irish novelist. She has won a number of awards, including the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979 and a Lifetime Achievement from the Irish Book Awards (2012). The Old Jest, a novel about the Irish War of Independence, was later made into a film called The Dawning, starring Anthony Hopkins, produced by Sarah Lawson and directed by Robert Knights. [1]
She was born in Dublin to Irish actress and director Shelah Richards and Irish playwright Denis Johnston. [2] A cousin of actress and film star Geraldine Fitzgerald, via Fitzgerald's mother, Edith (née Richards), Jennifer Johnston was educated at Trinity College Dublin. [3] For decades, she lived in Derry, and currently lives near Dublin. [4] Other cousins include the actresses Tara Fitzgerald and Susan Fitzgerald. [5] [6]
Johnston was born into the Church of Ireland and many of her novels deal with the fading of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy in the 20th century. She married a fellow student at Trinity College, Ian Smyth, in 1951. [7] Johnston is a member of Aosdána. [8]