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Elodie Harper

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Elodie Lauren Geraldine Harper (born 1979) is an English author and journalist. She began her career working for the BBC and Channel 4 News before joining ITV News Anglia as a reporter. Her Pompeii-set novel The Wolf Den (2021), the first in a trilogy, became a #1 Sunday Times bestseller.

Elodie Harper
Born
Elodie Lauren Geraldine Harper

1979
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Oxford
Spouse
Jason Farrington
​
(m. 2010)​
Children1
MotherSuzy Kendall
Websitewww.elodieharper.com

Early life

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Harper is from West London, the daughter of retired actress Suzy Kendall.[1] Harper attended Francis Holland School.[2] She graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford with a degree in English literature.[3]

Career

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Harper presented a number of documentaries for the BBC, including a July 2006 documentary on Volunteer Ministers in Scientology for BBC Radio 5 Live.[4][5] She then worked as a producer and reporter for Channel 4 News before joining ITV News Anglia in 2010 as a staff reporter.[1]

Harper successfully submitted her short story "Wild Swimming" to Stephen King's Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition.[6] The winning story then featured King's 2016 anthology Six Scary Stories. That March, Harper signed a two-book deal with Mulholland Books for the publication of her debut novel The Binding Song, a thriller set at the fictional HMP Halvergate in Norfolk, in 2017.[7] This was followed by her second crime novel The Death Knock in 2018. However, she felt her first two novels, set in the "Norfolk Noir" genre,[8] were too close to her day job, motivating her to go into historical fiction.[9]

Historian Dan Jones introduced Harper to Head of Zeus (a Bloomsbury Books imprint),[10] through which Harper published her first historical fiction novel The Wolf Den in May 2021. Set in ancient Pompeii, the novel follows Amara, a young woman enslaved in the city's Lupanar.[11] She cited Robert Knapp's Invisible Romans, Mary Beard's Pompeii, and Alison Cooley's Pompeii and Herculaneum as some of her sources when conducting research for the novel.[12] The Wolf's Den debuted at #1 on The Sunday Times paperback fiction list,[13] won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award,[14] and was shortlisted for Page Turner of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards.[15] It was also longlisted for the Historical Writers' Association's (HWA) Gold Crown Award.[16] This was followed by a sequel The House with the Golden Door in 2022,[17] which entered the top 10 on the bestseller list.[18] The third and final installment The Temple of Fortuna was published in 2023.[19] Antonia Senior of The Times called it "one of the best historical fiction trilogies" since Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.[20]

In 2022, it was confirmed Harper would reunite with Head of Zeus for her next two novels: Boudicca's Daughter and an untitled novel about Fulvia, Mark Antony's wife.[21] In 2024, Harper signed her first children's book deal with DK Children for a middle-grade trilogy.[22]

Personal life

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Harper married Jason Farrington in 2010 and has a son.[23][24]

Bibliography

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Wolf Den trilogy

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  • The Wolf Den (2021)
  • The House with the Golden Door (2022)
  • The Temple of Fortuna (2023)

Standalones

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  • The Binding Song (2017)
  • The Death Knock (2018)
  • Boudicca's Daughter (2025)
  • Untitled Fulvia novel (2026)

Short stories

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References

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  1. ^ a b Russell, Steve (10 August 2018). "Writer and Anglia TV reporter Elodie Harper: I wish I'd got to know my godfather Dudley Moore better". Eastern Daily Press. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  2. ^ Brazer, Claire (13 September 2021). "Alumna Elodie Harper is Waterstones featured Book of the Month author!". Francis Holland Alumni. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  3. ^ Harper, Elodie (July 2021). "Reimagining the forgotten women of Pompeii" (PDF). Sundial. p. 16. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Reporter Elodie Harper goes undercover to reveal the tactics used by Scientology followers in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events". Five Live Report. BBC Radio. 2006-07-02. Archived from the original (Real Audio (45 min)) on 2008-12-26. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  5. ^ von Marcab, Lilly (26 June 2008). "Scientologists in Action: The True Nature of Scientology's "Vulture Ministers"". Indybay. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  6. ^ Armistead, Claire (30 January 2016). "Stephen King picks winner of Guardian short story contest". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  7. ^ Cowdrey, Katherine (4 March 2016). "The Binding Song to Mulholland". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  8. ^ "Norfolk Noir". The Crime Writers' Association. 16 September 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  9. ^ "A Cambridge Writer's Diary: Elodie Harper". Cambridge Edition. 23 June 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  10. ^ Chandler, Mark (17 February 2021). "Historian Dan Jones takes on roles at Head of Zeus". The Bookseller. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  11. ^ Xenos, Natalie (13 May 2021). "Book Review: The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper". CultureFly. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  12. ^ Armstrong, Kate J (13 May 2021). "She-Wolves: Writing the Women of Pompeii with Elodie Harper". The Exploress. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  13. ^ "Elodie Harper is #1 on The Times Bestsellers paperback list with THE WOLF DEN". Mushens Entertainment. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  14. ^ Bayley, Sian (8 September 2022). "Harper wins £2,000 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award". The Bookseller. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  15. ^ Waite-Taylor, Eva (2022-03-25). "The British Book Awards 2022 shortlist is in". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  16. ^ "HWA Crown Awards 2022: the longlists". Historia. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  17. ^ Baugher Milas, Lacy (7 September 2022). "The House with the Golden Door Is a Nuanced Expansion of The Wolf Den's World". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  18. ^ "Meet the author". The Sunday Post. 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  19. ^ Baugher Milas, Lacy (27 November 2023). "Elodie Harper Talks The Temple of Fortuna, Vesuvius's Eruption, and Bringing the Wolf Den Trilogy to an End". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  20. ^ Senior, Antonia (25 October 2023). "The best new historical fiction for October 2023 — this Roman brothel saga is one of the best trilogies since Wolf Hall". The Times. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  21. ^ Brown, Lauren (30 June 2022). "Head of Zeus snaps up two novels from Wolf Den author Harper in six-figure deal". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  22. ^ Tivnan, Tom (17 October 2024). "D K Children's signs historical novelist Elodie Harper for her first kids' books". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  23. ^ "My First Time with...Elodie Harper". The Riff Raff. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  24. ^ "Order of service for wedding in Chapel between Elodie Lauren Geraldine Harper and Jason Farrington". Magdalen College, Oxford. 28 August 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
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