Helen Walsh


Helen Walsh is an English novelist and film director. Her novels include Brass, which won a Betty Trask Award, and Once Upon a Time in England, which won a Somerset Maugham Award.

Personal life

Walsh was born in Warrington, Cheshire, in 1976. At the age of 16, she moved to Barcelona, Spain but returned to England in her early twenties.

Writing

Her controversial debut, Brass, was published in 2004 and won a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel, Once Upon a Time In England, was published in 2008 and won a 2009 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the 2008 Portico Prize. Her third novel, Go to Sleep was published in 2011. All three were published by Canongate Press.
Walsh's most recent novel, The Lemon Grove was published in 2014 by Tinder Press. It concerns the illicit relationship between a woman and her stepdaughter's 17-year-old boyfriend on holiday in Mallorca.

Film

Walsh has also worked in the film industry. Her directorial debut The Violators was released in 2016.