Thomas, Scarlett 1972-

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THOMAS, Scarlett 1972-

PERSONAL:

Born 1972, in London, England; daughter of Francesca Ashurst (an actress, political activist, and teacher) and Gordian Troeller (a manager in the music industry and racehorse business owner); partner of Tom Fraser. Education: Graduated from University of East London (first class honors; cultural studies). Politics: "'Old' Labour; Socialist." Hobbies and other interests: Playing guitar and flute, homeopathy, visiting museums.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Agent—Simon Trewin, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Book of the Year, Independent on Sunday, 1999, for In Your Face; Elle Style Award, 2002, for Going Out.

WRITINGS:

Dead Clever (first book in "Lily Pascale" trilogy), Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1998, Justin, Charles (Boston, MA), 2003.

In Your Face (second book in "Lily Pascale" trilogy), Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1999, Justin, Charles (Boston, MA) 2004.

Seaside (third book in "Lily Pascale" trilogy), Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 2000.

Bright Young Things, Flame (London, England), 2001.

Going Out, Fourth Estate (London, England), 2002, Anchor/Vintage (New York, NY), 2004.

PopCo, Fourth Estate (London, England), 2004.

Work also represented in anthologies, including All Hail the New Puritans. Contributor to newspapers and magazines, including Guardian, Butterfly, Black Book, Literary Review, and Independent on Sunday. Writer of radio play Why My Grandmother Learned to Play the Flute, experimental story/soundscape broadcast on Radio 4 (London, England), 2003.

ADAPTATIONS:

Trillion Entertainment has optioned feature film rights to Bright Young Things; Greenlit Productions has optioned feature film rights to Going Out.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A new novel with the working title Life.

SIDELIGHTS:

Scarlett Thomas writes fiction centering on unorthodox young people often leading rather bohemian lives in England. She has written mysteries featuring an independent young woman detective, Lily Pascale, as well as novels outside the genre, and she contributed a short story to the anthology All Hail the New Puritans. This anthology aroused controversy with its manifesto calling for simple, straightforward prose, eschewing such devices as flashbacks and poetic license. In an interview published on her Web site, Thomas characterized All Hail the New Puritans as something of "an experiment, to see what would happen if those particular writers were given those particular rules," but also endorsed other styles of storytelling, saying, "It's the skill of the writer that determines whether a piece of writing works, not rules." Numerous reviewers have praised Thomas's skill; for instance, Independent on Sunday contributor Murrough O'Brien, critiquing Going Out, described her writing as "deeply original and provocative."

Dead Clever, Thomas's debut novel introduces Pascale, a "smart, hip, and brilliant" sleuth, in the words of USA Today commentator Carol Memmott. Twenty-five-year-old Pascale, tired of life in London, returns to her hometown of Devon, where she finds a job teaching literature at a university. She loves detective stories, and she becomes a real-life detective after a student is raped and murdered and a witness dies under mysterious circumstances. Pascale's investigation brings her into contact with drug dealers, cult leaders, and a variety of other bizarre characters. "Solid narrative and engaging dialog hold it all together," reported Rex E. Klett in Library Journal. A Kirkus Reviews critic was unimpressed, however, finding Pascale "drab" and the tale "preposterous." Memmott, on the other hand, deemed the story "slightly far-fetched but very Mary Shelley-ish," adding, "It's sure to satisfy readers who prefer a more literary crime novel." A Publishers Weekly reviewer summed up Dead Clever as an "engaging mystery … full of attractive characters in a lovingly evoked setting."

Thomas continued Pascale's adventures in two more mysteries: In Your Face, which finds her trying to solve the murders of three young women who had discussed their experiences with stalkers in a magazine article written by a friend of Lily's, and Seaside, in which a teenage woman apparently commits suicide—but her surviving twin sister claims to be the dead girl. Scotland on Sunday contributor Susie Maguire deemed the latter book Thomas's "best to date."

Thomas next published Bright Young Things, a novel about six youths, all highly intelligent but frustrated with their lives, who are brought together when they answer a newspaper advertisement seeking "bright young things" for a "big project." When they report for their interviews, they are drugged, abducted, and taken to a faraway island. Some reviewers compared the novel to the television series Big Brother, in which strangers were forced to share a house, and Alex Garland's novel The Beach, about young Europeans on a Thai island. "It is right on the zeitgeist," related Vicky Allan in Scotland on Sunday, while Steve Jelbert, writing in the London Times, thought the book "wickedly satirized" hip young people.

Going Out deals with twenty-five-year-old Luke, who is allergic to the sun and therefore has never left the home he shares with his cloying mother. He gets his perceptions of the world from television, the Internet, and his friend Julie, who is brilliant at mathematics but nonetheless unambitious, satisfied with being a waitress. They must leave their respective routines behind, however, when Luke decides to travel to meet a man who offers him a cure. Julie and a collection of quirky companions accompany him. London Daily Mail reviewer Amber Pearson described the story as "a modern take on The Wizard of Oz," while Scotsman critic Casron Howat found the book "heartwarming and definitely funny."

Thomas told CA: "I find the world a rather confusing, often alienating place. I always wanted to explore this and to create imaginary utopias where the anxieties of contemporary life can be resolved. Narrative is a good place to find resolution, if that's what you are seeking. In my most recent books, Bright Young Things, Going Out, and PopCo, the characters tend to go on journeys of some sort. I think that's important.

"My work is influenced by a lot of reading. The more I write, the more I seem to read. I go to a public library every day with a flask of coffee. Paul Erdos once said that a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into proofs. Perhaps an author is another kind of machine—it's the same fuel but you get a different result at the end. I like writing in public spaces. It keeps me connected with what I am writing about.

"When I read an exciting writer, that gives me more inspiration than anything. Jean Baudrillard, William Gibson, Douglas Coupland, Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, and Mary Shelley have all influenced me in some way. I read a lot of math and science books too, which send my imagination racing. Recently, I found Stanley Milgram's study, "Obedience to Authority," absolutely fascinating.

"I was quite unpleasantly surprised by the "corporate" side of writing. I never realized how much of writing is driven by sales and marketing targets, and how your readership can be determined by bookshop policy. It is also much less glamorous than I thought it would be, which is probably a good thing.

"My favorite book is always the one I have just finished, so I suppose it is PopCo. There are other reasons, though, too. PopCo is my longest book so far (it's twice as long as Going Out), and the most ambitious. It's mainly about a toy company, and the process of developing a new idea in a remote, corporate 'thought camp.' But it's also about seventeenth-century pirates, World War II, early computing, number theory, secret codes, and ways of resisting authority. It's this crazy mix of things and I really hope it works.

"Occasionally I get e-mails from people who say that one of my books has made them look at the world in a slightly different way, or even better, that the book has made them feel that they are not the only person experiencing loneliness or confusion or alienation. Getting an e-mail like that beats even the most brilliant review. In my books, it's ok to be a dreamer, to walk out of your job, to become a vegetarian, to try to start a revolution. I want my books to make people realize that these things are all completely ok—that they are desirable and logical in the world in which we live. On another level, I want my books to make people think, 'Huh?,' to make the reader try to solve the puzzles (there are lots of puzzles in PopCo), and to feel happy, at least on some level, at the end."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Mail (London, England), August 9, 2002, Amber Pearson, review of Going Out, p. 54.

Independent on Sunday (London, England), April 13, 2003, Murrough O'Brien, review of Going Out, p. 19.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2002, review of Dead Clever, p. 1740.

Library Journal, January, 2003, Rex E. Klett, review of Dead Clever, p. 162.

Publishers Weekly, December 16, 2002, review of Dead Clever, p. 48.

Scotland on Sunday, October 24, 1999, Susie Maguire, review of Seaside, p. 11; March 11, 2001, Vicky Allan, review of Bright Young Things, p. 12.

Scotsman, March 29, 2003, Casron Howat, review of Going Out, p. 6.

Times (London, England), August 4, 2001, Steve Jelbert, review of Bright Young Things.

USA Today, April 17, 2003, Carol Memmott, "'Dead Clever' Unveils a Hip Literary Detective," p. 5D.