Many people can’t imagine their life without books. They help us to recharge and have a rest plunging into another reality. Writing a book isn’t an easy task. This work requires a lot of strength and energy. In this article, we will tell you about writer Joanne Harris. She is an English-French author of the famous novel Chocolat. Learn more about her life and activities at leedska.
Childhood and education
The future writer was born in Barnsley, near Leeds, in 1964. Her father was British and her mother was French. Joanne spoke only French until school. By the way, her parents taught French at Barnsley Girls’ High School.
She attended Wakefield Girls’ High School and Barnsley Sixth Form College. Then Joanne studied at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge, where she met her husband.
It is worth noting that the young Joanne was fond of Scandinavian mythology and the works of Ray Bradbury, Mervyn Peake and Emily Brontë.
Career development
Joanne Harris began her career as an accountant. Later, she received her pedagogical degree at the University of Sheffield and worked as a teacher for 15 years. Joanne taught modern languages at the independent Leeds Grammar School and French literature at the University of Sheffield.
During her teaching career, Joanne Harris published her first novels, The Evil Seed and Sleep, Pale Sister. Then she wrote Chocolat, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award in 1999. A year later, the novel was screened. Chocolat became famous and was sold in over a million copies. After that, the author wrote three more novels in the Chocolat series. Those were The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur le Curé and The Strawberry Thief.
In 2000, the writer published the novel Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange a year later. Joanne Harris continued to write new books actively and then published Coastliners, Holy Fools, Runemarks, The Gospel of Loki, The Testament of Loki, Gentlemen and Players, Different Class, A Narrow Door, Blueeyedboy, Broken Light, A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road, Orfeia, Honeycomb and others.
Other activities
In addition to creating novels, Joanne also writes articles for such mass media as The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and The Times. In 2017, Joanne Harris even won a Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Award for her article in Good Housekeeping.
She also participated in musical projects, creating operas for the Tête à Tête Festival, a stage show, a musical, etc. In addition, Joanne is often invited to judge various prizes.
Joanne Harris is involved in charity work too. She actively supports the Doctors Without Borders charitable foundation and even donated the proceeds from her cookbooks.
Chocolat and a French village
As it was mentioned above, Chocolat is considered the most successful novel by Joanne Harris. The described events take place in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, where a single mother and her daughter come at the beginning of Lent. The main character of the book, Vianne Rocher, opens a chocolate workshop opposite the church. As you know, believers limit themselves to meat and sweets during fasting. However, the opening of the chocolate workshop disturbed the peaceful life of the villagers, as the incredible aromas of chocolate attracted both children and adults.
Vianne got into a conflict with the priest Francis Reynaud because the villagers began to visit the chocolate workshop more and more often. Priest Reynaud doesn’t like the woman and her workshop and speaks publicly about it during every Sunday service. However, the woman wasn’t as innocent as it may seem. The reader learns that Vianne is a witch with certain abilities and opening a chocolate workshop is the dream of her whole life.
There is another interesting character in the book, Josephine Muscat, the wife of Paul-Marie Muscat. At the beginning of the novel, she is described as a silent and fearful woman, who has been horribly treated by her husband. Vianne offers her friendship and as a result, Josephine leaves the abuser. Josephine begins to live and work in a chocolate workshop. She starts to flourish, becoming confident and good-looking.
As mentioned above, the book was later screened and the writer gained fame and popularity.
Joanne Harris is a famous author who has written a lot of books. All of them captivate the reader with a sharp plot and interesting characters.
We hope that our article was informative and you learned more about this famous woman.
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