Sophie Duffy is an award-winning British novelist who writes about the complications and joys of family relationships. Her debut novel, The Generation Game (2011), won the Yeovil Literary prize and the Luke Bitmead bursary.
Sophie also writes romantic comedies under the pen name Lizzie Lovell.
Sophie Duffy was born in Devon. She has had many jobs over the years, including working in the Greenwich dole office and pounding the streets as an Avon lady. Then, Duffy became a teacher. She specialized in her early years in southeast London and then in Worthing.
In Sussex, Sophie got a bit bored and took a creative writing evening class, which led to an MA, which she completed at Lancaster University by distance learning from 2002–2004.
Her first breakthrough was in 2006 when The Generation Game won the Yeovil Literary Prize as a work-in-progress. The novel is inspired by Sophie's childhood growing up in a sweet shop in Torquay.
The second novel, This Holey Life, was the runner-up of The Harry Bowling Prize in 2008. Finally, The Generation Game won the Luke Bitmead Award in 2010 and was published by Legend Press in 2011.
She has since had a further three novels published by Legend: This Holey Life (2012), Bright Stars (2015), and Betsy and Lilibet (2018), the latter the story of two women born on the same day, one the Queen, the other an undertaker.
Under the pseudonym Lizzie Lovell, she published The Juniper Gin Joint (2018) and The West Country Winery (2019).
Sophie Duffy has a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of Greenwich. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Additionally, she is part of the team of Creative Writing Matters, who administer and longlist the Exeter novel prize.
Sophie Duffy lived for a long time in Teignmouth, Devon, with her husband and three children. When the children grew up, she moved north to Wirral.
Photo credit: Matt Austin (www.sophieduffy.com)
