Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris (born 3 July 1964) is a British author, best known for her 1999 novel Chocolat, which was adapted into a film of the same name.

Early life

Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to an English father and a French mother, and lived above her grandparents' corner sweet shop until the age of three. Harris's mother did not speak English when she married, and so Harris spoke only French until she started school. Both her parents taught French at Barnsley Girls' High School. Harris attended Wakefield Girls' High School and Barnsley Sixth Form College. She studied modern and mediaeval languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. She met her husband Kevin when they were both students at Barnsley Sixth Form College. Growing up, Harris was influenced by Norse mythology, classic adventure stories including Jules Verne and Rider Haggard, and the work of Ray Bradbury, Mervyn Peake and Emily Brontë.

Literary career

After a year as an accountant, which she later described as "like being trapped in a Terry Gilliam film", Harris trained as a teacher at the University of Sheffield, and for 15 years she taught modern languages, mostly at the independent Leeds Grammar School, and later taught French literature at the University of Sheffield. While she was a teacher she published the horror/gothic novels The Evil Seed and Sleep, Pale Sister. This was followed by Chocolat, a literary novel set in a French village, which went on to be shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award. Following the success in 2000 of the motion picture Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, the book sold more than a million copies. Harris wrote three more novels in the Chocolat series: The Lollipop Shoes (titled The Girl With No Shadow in the US), Peaches for Monsieur le Curé (Peaches for Father Francis in the US), and The Strawberry Thief, as well as three French cookbooks (co-written with Fran Warde). Chocolat was followed by the novels Blackberry Wine (2000) and Five Quarters of the Orange (2001), the latter described by The Guardian as having food "underpinning the action". They were followed by Coastliners in 2002 and Holy Fools in 2003, both of which are set on the fictional French island of Le Devin. In 2007, Harris published Runemarks, a fantasy novel based on Norse mythology. The sequels, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki and The Testament of Loki followed between 2011 and 2017. Harris' fantasy novels and novellas were published under the name Joanne M. Harris to distinguish them from her other work. In 2006, Harris published Gentlemen and Players, a psychological thriller set in the fictional boys' grammar school of St Oswald's, inspired by her time as a teacher. This was followed by two more St Oswald's books, Different Class and A Narrow Door, alongside two more psychological thrillers, Blueeyedboy and Broken Light, all set in the fictional town of Malbry, inspired by the Yorkshire village of Almondbury. Harris has also published three novellas, A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road, and Orfeia, loosely based on Child Ballads and illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, as well as two collections of short stories and numerous contributions to various charitable anthologies. In 2021 she published Honeycomb, a collection of original fairytales forming a mosaic novel, illustrated by Charles Vess. She has also published a Doctor Who novella, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller. In 2024, Orion Books announced plans to bring out a prequel to Chocolat, entitled Vianne, due to be published in 2025. Harris's books have now been published in over 50 languages.

Journalism

Harris writes regularly for the press, and has written multiple travel pieces for The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and The Times, as well as articles on more literary themes. In 2017 she won a Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Award for an article on memory and scent, published in Good Housekeeping.

Themes

Repeated themes in Harris' books include: food as a means of understanding character; the dynamic between feasting and fasting; motherhood and the patriarchy; tensions within communities; outsiders and outcasts; religious intolerance and "the magic of everyday things". Many of Harris' books are about women who challenge the status quo and the way in which women are perceived in society. Harris also regularly uses folklore and myth in her novels, giving a modern, original spin to traditional stories.

Reception

The books have been praised for their multi-layered storytelling, use of culinary metaphors and arresting plot twists. The Guardian describes Harris' books as "astringent, highly original and often subtly fantastic mainstream novels.' The Irish Times says: "The Chocolat novels are poignant literary explorations of universal themes of pleasure and denial, the dangers of dogma, xenophobia and racism and the enduring power of love and understanding to eradicate the traumas of the past," with a Locus review calling Harris "exceedingly gifted at producing vivid imagery". Critics have remarked on her skill at "foreshadowing impending doom" and "unerring eye for school life." Some reviewers have questioned the plausibility of some of the plot twists, while acknowledging the compulsive nature of the read.

Other activities

Harris has been involved in a number of musical projects, including collaborating with Lucie Treacher and the Tête à Tête Opera Festival to create two mini-operas, building a stage show with the Storytime Band based on her work, and co-writing and developing an original stage musical, Stunners, with Howard Goodall. She has judged the Orange (Women's) Prize, the Whitbread Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, the Primadonna Prize, the Comedy Women in Print Award and the Winton Prize for Science Books. In 2024 Harris was announced as the chief judge of the new Entente Littéraire Prize for French and UK Young Adult novels, a joint initiative of Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron, sponsored by the Royal Society of Literature. In 2021, Harris was a guest on BBC's Desert Island Discs, where her chosen book was the collected works of Victor Hugo, her luxury was her own shed, and the record she "would save from the waves" was Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now". Harris is a patron of the charities Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), to which she donated the proceeds of her cookery books, and Plan UK. In 2009 she travelled to the Congo to report on MSF's work there. Harris sits on the Board of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. Harris was chair of the management committee of the Society of Authors for two terms from 2020 to 2024, being unanimously re-elected to the position in March 2022. She assisted in several SOA campaigns, including calling for more investment in libraries and the arts, calling for translators to have their names on the cover of books, and raising awareness on author pay and conditions. In 2022 she appeared on the Bookseller 's list of the 150 most influential people in publishing. She has also campaigned for literary festivals to pay contributors, has spoken out in favour of trigger warnings in books and has spoken out against sexism in publishing and the gendering of children's books. In 2015 Harris launched a protest against the Clean Reader app, which had been designed to replace profanities in books with 'clean' alternatives, calling it 'censorship, not by the state, but by a religious minority.' This campaign, which was supported by many other authors, including Chuck Wendig, Charles Stross and Margaret Atwood, led to the speedy removal of the app. In 2022 a members' vote was raised calling for Harris to stand down as chair of the SOA, in relation to the society's stance on protecting free speech. The motion was defeated, with 81% voting against.

Honours and awards

Harris is the holder of honorary doctorates in literature from the University of Huddersfield and the University of Sheffield, and is an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Harris was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to literature. In 2022, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2022, Harris was also named PinkNews's "Ally of the Year". Awards include:

Personal life

Harris lives in Yorkshire with her husband Kevin, and has a son. She works from a shed in her garden. Harris was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, and discussed the diagnosis and her ongoing treatment on social media and at the Hay Festival. In 2023 she was declared cancer-free, and wrote in The Guardian that the experience had made her reassess her priorities and had given her back her voice. She has stated that she has a form of synaesthesia "in which colours in bright light trigger scents." She also suffers from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in winter.

Publications

Gothic novels

Chocolat series

Books set in France

Cookery books (with Fran Warde)

Short story collections

Malbry series

Rune series

Novellas

On writing

Fantasy and sci-fi

Stories in anthologies