Madeleine Mortimer (born 1996) is an English novelist.
Early life Mortimer is from West London and attended Latymer Upper School. She studied English Literature at the University of Bristol, and has worked in marketing and as a screenwriter. Her mother was the writer and filmmaker Katie Pearson.
Writing Mortimer has described her first novel, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, as "an elegy to my mum and to our relationship". Mortimer's mother died of cancer in 2010 and the book focuses on a fictional woman called Lia who has a "shapeshifting cancer inside her body. Moving between Lia's past and present, the book is a look at memory, mother-daughter relationships, and coming to terms with death". Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies won the 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize, which is awarded for a debut novel published in the UK or Ireland. It was also shortlisted for the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize and longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.
Awards Year Work Award Category Result Ref2022Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies Booker Prize — Desmond Elliott Prize — Goldsmiths Prize — Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award —2023Betty Trask Prize and AwardsBetty Trask Award Selected publications
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