Annie Ernaux awarded 2022 Nobel Prize in literature: ‘She writes about things that no one else writes about’
French writer Annie Ernaux has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature for “the courage and clinical acuity” in her largely autobiographical books.
The 82-year-old author – the first French woman to win the world-famous literature prize – saw her debut novel Les Armoires Vides published in 1974 (in English it was called Cleaned Out), and La Place (A Man’s Place), the book that made her name, released in 1983.
She gained international recognition following the publication in 2008 of Les Années, which was translated into The Years in 2017, and an adaptation of her 2000 novel Happening – about her experiences of having an abortion when it was still illegal in France in the 1960s – won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.
Michel Euler/AP
Born to a family of grocers from Normandy in the north of the country, Ernaux worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time author.
Known for her frank, direct style about class and how she struggled to adopt the codes and habits of the French bourgeoisie while staying true to her working class background, she has had more than 20 books published.
The Nobel prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were established in the will of Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901.
Announcing this year’s literature winner, the Swedish Academy said Ernaux “consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class”, and that her “path to authorship was long and arduous”.
Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, described her as “an extremely honest writer who is not afraid to confront the hard truths”.
He added: “She writes about things that no one else writes about, for instance her abortion, her jealousy, her experiences as an abandoned lover and so forth. I mean, really hard experiences.”
Ernaux told Swedish broadcaster SVT: “I was very surprised… I never thought it would be on my landscape as a writer.
“It is a great responsibility… to testify, not necessarily in terms of my writing, but to testify with accuracy and justice in
relation to the world.”
‘Her voice is that of women’s freedom’
French President Emmanuel Macron was among those congratulating her, tweeting: “Annie Ernaux has been writing for 50 years the novel of the collective and intimate memory of our country. Her voice is that of women’s freedom, and the century’s forgotten ones.”
However, Ernaux hasn’t always been a fan of his; a supporter of left-wing causes for social justice, she has poured scorn on the president’s background in banking and said his first term failed to advance the cause of French women.
She becomes just the 17th woman among the 119 Nobel literature laureates, winning a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (just over £800,000).
Seven Stories Press, Ernaux’s US publisher of 31 years, said it published the English translation of her most recent book, Getting Lost, just two days before her win, and was now rushing several of her backlist titles to press.
Other Nobel Prize winners
The week of Nobel Prize announcements began on Monday, when a Swedish scientist who used DNA sequencing to find the link between extinct people and modern humans was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger won the physics prize on Tuesday for work showing that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated – a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.
The chemistry prize was awarded to Americans Carolyn R Bertozzi and K Barry Sharpless, and Danish scientist Morten Meldal, for developing a way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to explore cells, map DNA and design drugs to target cancer and other diseases.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, followed by the economics award on Monday.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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