Zadie Smith's Biography

Her first novel, White Teeth (2000) set in North London's Willesden was a best-seller and won several awards including the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award.

Written whilst studying at Cambridge University, White Teeth was described by its author as 'the literary equivalent of a hyperactive ginger-haired tap-dancing 10-year-old."

Zadie Smith left Britain for a while and went to Harvard. She was reportedly disenchanted with life in Britain and how it had changed.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Smith explained:

"It's the way people look at each other on the train; just general stupidity, madness, vulgarity, stupid TV shows, aspirational arseholes, money everywhere."

Her second novel, The Autograph Man, was published in 2002 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

When Zadie Smith wrote The Autograph Man she thought her father was dying and she was miserable, consequently the book is in her own words 'very angry and sad'.

Zadie Smith was writer in residence at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).

In November 2016, the BBC announced that it was making a 90 minute adaptation of Zadie Smith's 2012 novel NW.

The announcement coincided with the publication of her fifth novel, Swing Time, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017.

She is married to writer Nick Laird.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty

Smith's On Beauty was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2005 and won the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006.

Synopsis: A social comedy in which two families that are miles apart come together. The Belseys, already an odd mix unto themselves are joined by the Kippses, presided over by Sir Monty Kipps, an ultra-conservative West Indian.