The van-driving Oxford graduate, 27, who could be youngest ever Booker winner
SHE spends her time writing while travelling around Britain in a van.
Now Daisy Johnson has become the youngest author ever to be shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
The Oxford University graduate, 27, who is one of the six on the shortlist for the literary fiction prize, has been recognised for her novel Everything Under.
It tells the story of a lexicographer called Gretel who lives on a houseboat and mixes memory and ‘personal mythologies’ as she looks back to her youth and examines language.
Miss Johnson, who has a masters in creative writing from Oxford as well as a degree in English literature and creative writing from Lancaster University, is also the author of FEN, a collection of linked short stories published in 2016 and set in the Fens of East Anglia, where she grew up.
She now lives in Oxford, where she used to work in a bookshop.
But Miss Johnson also travels around the country in her van, which she has named Ursa, writing and sleeping in it. She regularly posts pictures of her unusual writing spaces on social media.
Earlier this year, Miss Johnson shared a picture of the window of her van on Instagram, and wrote: ‘Ursa van adventure #1 is over. Two months living in a space the size of our bathroom. Countless miles. Lots of Yorkshire ale. A fair amount of arguing. A large amount of fajitas on the gas hob. Lots of wild garlic and long walks. Zero bikini selfies. 3 (and a half) new short stories. Half of a new project. Two drafts of novel.’
Speaking to the Mail, Miss Johnson said: ‘We moved around a lot when I was younger but settled eventually in the Fens.
‘I went to a tiny Quaker school which I think probably had a lot to do with making me the argu- mentative person I am today. My mum is an early years teacher and my dad works in international development. They always gave me books and had a great bookcase I raided often, they taught me how to be a writer before I knew what a writer was.’
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner of the Man Booker in 2013, aged 28. The fiction prize was first awarded in 1969.
Apart from Miss Johnson, there are two other Britons, two Americans and a Canadian on this year’s shortlist. The winner will be announced on October 16.