Julia Darling’s inventive and often moving portrayal of a family on the verge of collapse, delivered with wit and sympathetic humour
Julia Darling
Julia Darling, longlisted for The Taxi Driver’s Daughter, was born in the house Jane Austen died in, so her fate was settled early: what else could she do but write?
Darling died at just 48, of breast cancer – with her career as a novelist still in its formative stages. The Taxi Driver’s Daughter was only her second novel and she never had the time to write a third. Her prize longlisting was confirmation of a talent that had been honed through her poems and short stories. Darling saw writing as a public rather than a solitary activity and initiated a number of community arts projects, including with the elderly, doctors and gay and lesbian writers.