Natalie Haynes
Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster. She appears on BBC Radio 4 as a presenter of documentaries and she is a reviewer of books, films, plays, television and art on Saturday Review and Front Row. She has judged the 2012 Orange Prize (now the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction) and is judging the 2013 Man Booker Prize. She judged Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel in 2010.
Her first non-fiction book, The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, was serialised by The Times in 2010. It has also been sold in the US, and translated into Greek, Spanish and Portuguese. Among many other favourable reviews, The Financial Times suggested ‘you shouldn’t read AC Grayling’s The Good Book without reading The Ancient Guide first.’
Natalie was also a stand-up comedian for 12 years, and was the first woman ever to be nominated for the prestigious Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She retired in 2009 to spend more time writing. She delivered the Voltaire Lecture at Conway Hall in March 2011, and is a judge on this year’s Booker prize panel. Her first novel, The Amber Fury, came out in 2014.