About
“A cardinal amongst writers” Independent
“Extraordinary vision” Spectator
“… writes beautifully when she’s angry” Telegraph
“… writes elegantly, but tensely too, and with an unsparing gaze” Bookseller
“… sidesteps any temptation to sentimentalise or play to the gallery, and there are few opportunities for tears, although plenty for shock.” Readers Companion to the Twentieth Century Novel
Autobiography
Both my parents were writers. My father wrote several important books on economics while teaching at the University of California at Berkeley; my mother was an eminent journalist, largely responsible for the US Truth in Lending bill. But I was bad at school; I couldn't even read until I was eight years old… read more...
Press interviews
As Joan Brady tells Stuart Jeffries, her life has been far from uneventful… read more...
This granddaughter of a white slave tells Christie Hickman what fuels her rage …” read more...
Joan Brady’s life is no less astonishing than that of her grandfather, the inspiration for her award-winning novel … read more...
“Settling into an easy chair during a farrago of interviews and book signings at her London hotel, former San Franciscan Joan Brady looked abashed yet exhilarated at the sudden attention … read more...
Mary Wesley: “Joan was there with her husband, Dexter, a much older man. Theirs was a great love affair, they didn’t need others… read more....
Highlights in a Career
Winning the Whitbread Novel and Book of the Year
It all began very quietly. A letter arrived at Andre Deutsch, publisher of my novel Theory of War. “Dear Publisher,” it said, “Congratulations on being short-listed for one of the 1993 Whitbread Awards …” read more...
Winning the Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger
In the summer of 1995, my foreign rights agent called me and told me that I’d won a prestigious French Prize called the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. “Never heard of it,” I scoffed. She sent me a list of previous winners. The first name I caught was Elias Canetti. The Canetti? Winner of the Nobel Prize? Surely not…read more...
Representing England at the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize
The invitation came by email. I thought it was a joke. I mean, really, a request to represent England at the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway? Me? It also said I was to share a stage with Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Which sounded even more insane… read more...
Family
I am very fortunate in my family. All of them have been wonderfully successful.
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My son, Alexander Masters
My son is Alexander Masters, author of Stuart: a Life Backwards. He wrote the television adaptation of the book—a joint BBC/HBO venture from Sam Mendes’ studio—which was screened last September in the UK and is scheduled to show in the US in the next few months. Stuart and Bleedout were published on the same day.
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My husband, Dexter Masters
My husband was Dexter Masters author of The Accident, the first novel to deal with nuclear issues, so controversial in its time that the US banned the movie version of it. Dexter was also editor of the recently reissued One World or None, with articles by Einstein, Oppenheimer, Szilard and Bethe among others
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Flora Dennis
My son’s partner is Flora Dennis, Curator of At Home in Renaissance Italy, the extremely successful exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum in January 2007, and editor of the book—with the same name—that accompanied it.
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My sister, Judy Brady
If you’ve ever heard people say that what they really need is a wife, they’re quoting my sister, Judy Brady, who wrote “Why I Want a Wife” for the first issue of Ms. magazine in 1972. It has become feminist classic. She lives in San Francisco and has written on many subjects including abortion, education, the labor and women's movements and most particularly the politics of cancer.
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| My mother, Mildred Edie Brady
My mother was Mildred Edie Brady, co-founder of Consumers Union, economist, journalist, author of articles so influential and so controversial that she is still widely attacked for them half a century later. Harpers Magazine is right now re-posting her “The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy”, but the one that upsets so many people is “The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich”.
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My father, Robert A. Brady
My father was Robert A. Brady, economist, author of the first book to recognize the Nazi threat in Germany, The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism, which was published in several countries and sold more than 40,000 copies in England alone, and is still readily available in both the US and the UK.
By Spirit & structure available from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com
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| Christina Malman
My husband’s first wife was Christina Malman, a New Yorker artist of great talent. She drew 26 covers for the magazine and hundreds of spots, those small black and white illustrations that still pepper the pages. I have dozens of originals. The original of the cover shown is hanging on my living room wall. Several, including this one, are available from The New Yorker, available from Cartoonbank.com.
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Edgar Lee Masters
My husband’s uncle was the major American poet Edgar Lee Masters, eminent enough to rate a US stamp of his very own. His Spoon River Anthology has never been out of print since it was published in 1915. It is downloadable from the Guttenberg Project.
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