Laura Barnett is a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing. Her debut novel, The Versions of Us (2015), was a number-one bestseller; the book has been translated into 23 languages and optioned for TV by Trademark Films. Her other novels are Greatest Hits (2017), Gifts (2021) and, most recently, This Beating Heart (2022). A fifth novel, Births, Deaths and Marriages, will be published by Doubleday in 2025. Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and teaches widely for the agency-led writing school Curtis Brown Creative. As a freelance arts journalist, features writer and theatre critic, Laura has worked for the Guardian, the Observer and the Daily Telegraph amongst others. Born in south London, she now lives in rural Kent with her husband and son. Photo credit: Chris O’Donovan.