Melissa Nathan
Encyclopedia
Melissa Jane Nathan was a journalist and UK author of popular "chick lit
Chick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...

" novels in the early 2000s.

When working on Persuading Annie (2001), Nathan was diagnosed with breast cancer. She refused to let the illness dominate her life, and – in public anyway – was unfailingly positive. She had no time for most journalism written by cancer sufferers: "self-indulgent dirges without a helpline in sight", as she described them; she tried to joke about cancer's unoriginality in her Jewish Chronicle column and then added:

That was what you call laughing in adversity. It's what makes people smile mistily at me, as if I'm fading in front of their very eyes while telling knock-knock jokes. What they don't know is that I have daydreams about being the oldest person at their funeral.

Ironically, the characters in Nathan's first book, 'Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field', were starring in a play version of Pride & Prejudice that benefitted breast cancer research. The book was written prior to Nathan knowing about her own future diagnosis with the disease.

She died aged 37 from breast cancer in April 2006. She is survived by her husband, Andrew Saffron, and their son, Sam.

Her final novel, The Learning Curve, was published posthumously in August 2006. A writing award has been established to recognise quality comedy romance writers in her honour.

Novels

  • Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field (2000)
  • Persuading Annie (2001)
  • The Nanny
    The Nanny (2003 novel)
    The Nanny is a 2003 novel by Melissa Nathan. The story revolves around Jo Green, a bright but unfulfilled twenty-three-year-old nanny living in provincial England who takes a job with an upper class family in London.- Plot summary :...

    (2003)
  • The Waitress (2004)
  • Kiss me Kate (2005)
  • The Learning Curve (2006)
  • Acting Up (2008) – 'Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field' renamed and republished.

External links

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