Jennie Erdal

Jennie Erdal worked as an editor and translator for many years. Ghosting was her first book published under her own name. She lives in St Andrews.
‘Jennie Erdal’s Ghosting is a HUGE treat’ – Diana Athill, author of Stet
‘An unusually rich and entertaining memoir’ – Daily Telegraph
‘All the media buzz will be about the unmasking of Attallah, but really there’s a deeper, multi-layered story, and Erdal tells it with intelligence, clarity and insight’ – Scotsman

Books by Jennie Erdal

The Missing Shade of Blue
‘This is a writer of rare assurance and intelligence. Admirers of Iris Murdoch will feel very much at home here. Jennie Erdal is a name to watch out for.’ – The Spectator
‘She writes with a lively wit as well as a tender eye for the foibles of human nature. The result is a cerebral tragicomedy with a slyly anti-intellectual heart.’ – The Literary Review
‘Erdal excels in her tender and detailed exploration of different kinds of loss … a beautifully written novel.’ – The Scottish Review of Books
‘Erdal’s writing is intelligent and compelling, and she has a fine eye for the dynamics of sexual relationships.’ – The Times

Leaving Paris for Edinburgh to work on a translation, Edgar Logan anticipates a period of enlightenment and calm. But after a chance meeting with the philosopher Harry Sanderson and his captivating artist wife, Edgar’s meticulously circumscribed life is suddenly propelled into drama and crisis. The survivor of a solitary childhood and a breakdown in his student days, Edgar instinctively holds emotion and disorder at bay: while Sanderson- anarchic, paranoid and brilliant – is on the brink of a nameless mania, intent on destroying all he has created. Drawn into the Sandersons’ troubled marriage, Edgar must confront both his own deepest fears from the past and his growing attraction to the beguiling Carrie. Moving, witty and wise, THE MISSING SHADE OF BLUE is a compelling portrait of the modern condition, from the absence of faith to the scourge of sexual jealousy, from the elusive nature of happiness to the human capacity for love. Jennie Erdal is a dazzling new voice in fiction.
UK publication : Abacus, March 2012

Ghosting
A beautifully written and funny memoir set in the mining communities of Fife in the 1950s and literary London of the 1980s, with dual themes of language and deception. For fifteen years Jennie Erdal had a double existence: officially she worked as a personal editor for one particular man – Tiger – but in reality she was his ghost-writer and in some mysterious sense his alter ego. During this time she wrote a great deal that appeared under his name – personal letters, novels, newspaper columns, full- length books, business correspondence. Ghosting moves from startlingly vivid evocations of an austere Scottish upbringing in Fife to superbly rendered portraits of the people with whom she worked at a London based publishing house. None comes across more affectionately or intriguingly than that of Tiger, a larger than life character with whom the author had a deeply symbiotic relationship in spite of their personalities being almost polar opposites. This highly intelligent and extremely entertaining memoir is laced throughout with rich, quiet comedy and profound insights into what it means to be human and to live in language. Ghosting was shortlisted for the J R Ackerley Prize for Literary Autobiography, and for the Saltire First Book Award.
Extent: 270pp
UK Publication Date: November 2004
World Rights: Canongate
US Rights: Doubleday
Canada: Doubleday Canada
Germany: Aufbau, Spring 2009
Dutch rights: Cossee
Extract in Granta, April 2004 and Guardian Oct 2004
BBC 4 Book of the Week, February 2005
Jennie Erdal is represented at Jenny Brown Associates by Jenny -jenny@jennybrownassociates.com