Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Just In Case

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Just In Case

Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, in 1956, the second of four sisters, grew up in the Boston suburbs, went to "ordinary suburban schools" and then to Harvard. After three years of thinking ‘I've got to get out of here', she packed a bag and got on a plane for London where she applied and was accepted to art college to study sculpture. She says that art school was a disaster, "I was obviously a writer not a sculptor, but I didn't know that then .... but the rest of the year was a revelation. There was an unbelievable amount of fun to be had in London in 1977-78. I'm still reeling."

Eventually she returned to the US and finished her degree, then moved to New York City where she spent ten years working in publishing and advertising before quitting her job to return to London, where she still is. She lives in Highbury, north London, is married to an an English painter and has a nine year old daughter, Gloria. She says that she was inspired to write a book after her youngest sister died of breast cancer at the age of 39 leaving behind two little boys, and she thought if "I was going to write a book, I'd better do it soon because life is short." Her middle sister has also had breast cancer and then it was Meg's turn - at the moment How I Live Now came out she was diagnosed with cancer. She recollects the flowers at the hospital on the day of publication and the cards with their congratulations and commiseration messages. She says, "It was freaky. I felt: this puts everything into perspective."

She recently published What I Was, her first novel targeted at adults, which was reviewed by BookBrowse last month.

Filed under

This "beyond the book article" relates to Just In Case. It originally ran in August 2006 and has been updated for the January 2008 paperback edition. Go to magazine.