Paula Byrne: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|British author and biographer}}

{{Infobox academic

| honorific_prefix = <!-- see [[MOS:HONOURIFIC]] --> Lady

| name = Paula Jayne Byrne

| honorific_suffix = [[Royal Society of Arts|FRSA]]

| image = [[File:Paula Byrne.png|frameless|alt=Paula Byrne|Paula Byrne]]

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1967|08|02}}

| birth_place = [[Birkenhead, England|Merseyside]], England

| death_date = <!-- {{death date and age|df=y|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| occupation = {{flatlist|

* Academic

* novelist

* historian

* biographer

}}

| known_for = Biography, [[Jane Austen]], [[literary history]]

| spouse = [[Jonathan Bate|Sir Andrew Jonathan Bate]]

| children =

| education =

| alma_mater = [[Chichester University]]<br>[[University of Liverpool]]

| workplaces = <!--full-time positions only, not student positions--> [[University of Liverpool]]<br>[[University of Warwick]]<br>[[Harris Manchester College, Oxford]]

| main_interests = Eighteenth century, [[feminism]], biographies

}}

'''Paula Jayne Byrne, Lady Bate''' (born 2 August 1967), is a British biographer, novelist, and literary critic.

Byrne has a PhD in English literature from the [[University of Liverpool]], where she also studied for her MA, having completed a BA in English and Theology at West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (now [[Chichester University]]).

Byrne is the founder and chief executive of a small charitable foundation, ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of literature as a complementary therapy in the toolkit of medical practitioners dealing with stress, anxiety and other mental health conditions.<ref>{{cite web|title=relit.org.uk|url=http://www.relit.org.uk |accessdate=23 March 2017}}</ref> She is also a practicing psychotherapist, specializing in couples and family counseling.<ref>{{cite web|title=alohacounseling.org|url=https://alohacounseling.org/staff/paula-byrne-counseling-intern/}}</ref>

{{BLP sources section|date=November 2022}}

In January 2013, coinciding with the bicentenary of the first publication of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Byrne published a new biography called ''[[The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things]]''. Featured as [[BBC Radio 4]] Book of the Week, and again a ''Sunday Times'' top ten bestseller,<ref>{{cite web|title=Book of the Week|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q1h44 |accessdate=23 March 2017}}</ref> it approaches the subject's life by means of an array of key objects, including her portable writing desk and the topaz cross given to her by her brother. Austen was presented as a more worldly figure than is often thought, more engaged with city life, but above all as a highly professional writer. Byrne subsequently served as the expert consultant to the television series ''[[Sanditon (TV series)|Sanditon]]''.

In 2014, Byrne published a biography of [[Dido Elizabeth Belle]], which was a commission to coincide with the general release of the motion picture ''[[Belle (2013 film)|Belle]]''. Since few facts are known about Dido, the book set her life in the broader context of women and slavery in the late eighteenth century. It became a ''[[New York Times]]'' top ten bestseller.<ref>{{cite web|title=New York Times Bestsellers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2016/07/10 |accessdate=23 March 2017}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2017}}

Her 2016 biography, ''Kick'', the story of [[Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington]] (1920–1948), [[John F Kennedy]]'s sister, and her marriage to Billy, [[William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington]], drew on letters and diaries from the [[Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy]] archive in the [[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum]] and the Devonshire family papers at [[Chatsworth House]]. It was an international bestseller, achieving particular success in the Kennedy's ancestral homeland of Ireland.<ref>{{cite web|title=Irish Bestsellers|url=https://www.writing.ie/news/irish-bestseller-lists/irish-bestsellers-4th-june-2016 |accessdate=23 March 2017}}</ref>

She subsequently published two novels, one of which was based on the life of [[Marlene Dietrich]]. In 2021, she returned to biography with the widely-acclaimed ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym''. Based on the archive of [[Barbara Pym]] in the [[Bodleian Library]], it revealed many surprising aspects of the life of the English novelist, including a brief love affair with a Nazi SS officer prior to the Second World War.

* ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'' (William Collins, 2021).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/27/nonfiction-to-look-out-for-in-2021|title=Nonfiction to look out for in 2021|date=27 December 2020|author=Rachel Cooke|website=The Guardian|access-date=28 February 2021}}</ref>

[[Category:Alumni of the University of Chichester]]

[[Category:British women biographers]]

[[Category:British women literary critics]]

[[Category:English feminist writers]]

[[Category:English literary critics]]

[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]

[[Category:Wives of knights]]

[[Category:Writers from Birkenhead]]

[[Category:21st-century British biographers]]