Nell Leyshon

Nell Leyshon is a British dramatist and novelist born in Glastonbury, Somerset. She burned a lot of the early writing, before finally starting on "Black Dirt", her first published novel. Published in 2005, "Black Dirt" was long-listed for the Orange Prize and runner up for the Commonwealth Prize. A commission from BBC Radio 4 led to her writing her first radio drama, "Milk", which won the Richard Imison Award for best first radio play and her second play The Farm, was runner up for the Meyer Whitworth Award. Since then, she has alternated the three forms: prose, drama and radio. Her third novel, "The Colour of Milk", published by Penguin in 2012 won the Prix de l’Union Interalliée (France) and was nominated for the Prix Femina (France). It was voted the book of the year in Spain. "Memoirs of a Dipper" was published in 2015. Her play, Comfort me with Apples, won an Evening Standard Award for the most promising playwright, and was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, andand an Olivier Award. The play "Bedlam" was the first play written by a woman to be performed at Shakespeare’s Globe. She has written plays for National Theatre Connections, Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, Theatre Royal, Plymouth, and RADA. Her radio work includes many dramas for BBC Radio 3 and 4, including the play Glass Eels, and a special Women’s Hour series on teenage mental health. In 2014 she wrote her first libretto, The River Keeper, for Streetwise Opera, who work with homeless people. Her official website can be found at www.nellleyshon.com