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Jessica Duchen’s latest novel, Hungarian Dances, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2008, following wide acclaim for Rites of Spring and Alicia’s Gift. She is currently working on her fourth novel, Songs of Triumphant Love.
Jessica was born in London, where her parents settled after leaving South Africa in the 1950s. She regrets that she can’t remember her encounter with JR Tolkein in Oxford at the age of six, which has become a family legend. She first tried to write a novel at the age of 12. Her efforts soon found their way into the hands of a distinguished author and a literary agent, who both provided valuable encouragement. After studying at Cambridge, she worked as an editor in music publishing and magazines until going freelance to develop her writing. |
Her novels focus on the tensions and cross-currents between family generations, ranging from a painful exploration of the effects of anorexia (Rites of Spring) and the rearing of a child prodigy (Alicia’s Gift) to the long-term effects of displacement and cultural clashes (Hungarian Dances and Songs of Triumphant Love).
As a journalist, she writes regularly for The Independent and has interviewed most of the world’s finest musicians (see Archive). Her work appears frequently in BBC Music Magazine, The Strad and Classic FM Magazine; she has also contributed to The Guardian, The New Statesman and Gramophone. She has given pre-concert talks at the Barbican, Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls and served on the juries of the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and the BBC Music Magazine CD Awards.
Jessica’s ‘literary concerts’ for musicians and actors have been performed in the UK, France, Australia and America. Her first play, A Walk Through the End of Time, a one-act drama introducing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, was commissioned by her frequent collaborator, violinist Philippe Graffin, the artistic director of the Consonances Festival, Saint-Nazaire, in 2007 and won her the Medal of the Town of Saint-Nazaire (see StageWorks). She and the great tenor Robert Tear gave the play’s UK premiere in 2008.
Jessica’s first books were biographies of the composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Gabriel Fauré (see Books). She wrote the text for 'Inside London', Dorothy Bohm’s photographic portrait of the city, and has published several short stories, notably Too Much Mozart, commissioned by Graffin for the booklet of his CD with Nobuko Imai of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante.
Jessica married violinist Tom Eisner in 1998. She enjoys the company of her family, friends and cat, reads widely and loves cinema, cookery, theatre, ballet and art. She has no hobbies, only a way of life.
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