Beatrice Colin


Beatrice Colin was a British novelist, radio dramatist, and senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Strathclyde.

Early life

Beatrice Colin was born in London on 14 October 1963. Her family moved to Lancashire and then to Glasgow, where she attended Dumbarton Academy and Park School for Girls, followed by the University of Glasgow in 1982, where she read English. There she formed the musical duo April Showers with Jonathan Bernstein – their single "Abandon Ship" reached 144 in the UK singles charts.

Career

After graduating from the University of Glasgow, she worked as a journalist for the arts and features pages of publications including The Scotsman, Sunday Herald and The Guardian.
In her late twenties, she won a Radio 4 short story competition and started writing radio plays and adaptations. She was in a relationship with Love & Money singer James Grant and sang backing vocals on their album Strange Kind of Love.
She completed her PhD in creative writing at the University of Strathclyde in 2008.

Novels

Nude, Untitled, 2001
— shortlisted for the Saltire First Book AwardDisappearing Act, 2002The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite, 2008
The Glimmer Palace, 2007
— Recommended by the Richard & Judy Book Club, 2009The Songwriter, 2010
New York 1916, 2011 To Capture What We Cannot Keep, 2016 The Glass House, 2020

Short stories

  • "The Suffragette’s Party"
  • "Toad"
  • "Grey Evening"

For children

My Invisible Sister with Sara Pinto, 2010 Pyrate’s Boy, 2013

Film

Invisible Sister, 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie based on the book My Invisible SisterThe Hide, 2017 short film

Personal life

Colin married Ewan Morrison in 1996; the couple had two children, Theo in 1998 and Frances in 2001. Their marriage ended in 2003.
She met Paul Harkin, a lecturer, in 2008; they married in 2016.
Colin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2016, from which she died in 2019 aged 55.