Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam (1928–2025) was an English writer and critic. Born in North Yorkshire, she published her first book, *A Long Way from Verona*, at the age of forty; it won the Phoenix Award. She was the only female writer to receive the Whitbread/Costa Prize twice. Her novel *God on the Rocks* was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1978. Among her best-known works is the *Old Filth* trilogy; she also wrote *Robinson's Daughter* and *The People on Privilege Hill*. Gardam was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She died in Oxfordshire in 2025.