Jennifer Johnston (novelist)

Johnston was born in Dublin on 12 January 1930, to Irish actress and director Shelah Richards and Irish playwright Denis Johnston.^[4] A cousin of actress and film star Geraldine Fitzgerald, via Fitzgerald's mother, Edith (née Richards), Jennifer was educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1965 with a degree in ancient and modern literature.^[5][6] She was born into the Church of Ireland and many of her novels deal with the fading of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy in the 20th century. She was a member of Aosdána.^[7]

• 1973 Authors' Club First Novel Award for The Captains and the Kings^[8]
• 1977 Booker Prize shortlist for Shadows on our Skin^[1]
• 1979 Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest^[1]
• 1989 Giles Cooper Awards for O Ananias, Azarias and Misael^[1]
• 2001 Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin^[9]
• 2006 Irish PEN Award^[10]
• 2009 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature^[11]
• 2012 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award^[12]

Johnston was married twice. In 1951 she married a fellow student at Trinity College, Ian Smyth.^[13] Their four children are Patrick Smyth,^[14] Sarah, Lucy, and Malachy. After marrying her second husband, David Gilliland, she lived in Derry.^[15] After being widowed, she moved back to Dublin.^[16] Her cousins included the actresses Susan Fitzgerald^[17] and Tara Fitzgerald.^[18]

Johnston suffered from dementia in later years. She died at a nursing home in Dún Laoghaire, on 25 February 2025, at the age of 95.^[19] Among the tributes paid to her was one by Irish President Michael D Higgins who recalled that "throughout her many novels and plays, provided a deep and meaningful examination of the nature and limitations of identity, family and personal connections throughout the tumultuous events of 20th century Irish life".^[1]

Novels

• The Captains and the Kings (1972),^[4] winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award
• The Gates (1973)^[4]
• How Many Miles to Babylon? (1974)^[4]
• Shadows on Our Skin (1977), shortlisted for the Booker Prize^[1]
• The Old Jest (1979), winner of a Whitbread Book Award for 1979^[1]
• The Christmas Tree (1981)^[1]
• The Railway Station Man (1984)^[1]
• Fool's Sanctuary. London: Hamilton. 1987. ISBN 978-0-241-12035-4.
• The Invisible Worm (1991)^[5]
• The Illusionist (1995)^[4]
• Three Monologues: "Twinkletoes", "Mustn't Forget High Noon", "Christine" (1995)
• Finbar's Hotel, edited by Dermot Bolger (1997) (Contributor)
• Two Moons. London: Review. 1998. ISBN 978-0-7472-2136-4.^[4]
• The Essential Jennifer Johnston (1999) (contains The Captains and the Kings, The Railway Station Man, and Fool's Sanctuary)
• Great Irish Stories of Murder and Mystery (2000) (Contributor)
• The Gingerbread Woman. London: Review. 2000. ISBN 978-0-7472-2137-1.^[4]
• This is not a Novel (2002)^[20]
• Grace and Truth (2005)^[21]
• Foolish Mortals. London: Headline Review. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7553-3052-2.^[22]
• Truth or Fiction. London: Headline Review. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7553-3054-6.^[23]
• Shadow Story (2012)^[24]
• A Sixpenny Song (2013)^[25]
• Naming the Stars (2015)^[26][27]

Plays

• The Nightingale and Not the Lark (1981)^[21]
• Andante un Poco Mosso, first performed 1981,^[28] published in The Best Short Plays 1983 (1983)
• Indian Summer (1984)^[2]
• The Porch (1986)^[2]
• The Invisible Man (1987)^[29]
• O Ananias, Azarias and Misael (1989)^[1]
• Triptych (1989)^[30]
• Twinkletoes (1993)^[31]
• The Desert Lullaby: A Play in Two Acts. Belfast: Lagan. 1996. ISBN 978-1-873687-26-0.^[32][33]
• Moonlight and Music (2000)^[34][33]
• Waiting (2006)^[35]
• The Christmas Tree: A Play in Two Acts (2015)

• List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction