Scarlett Thomas (born 5 July^[2] 1972 inHammersmith) is an English author who writes contemporarypostmodern fiction. She has published ten novels, includingThe End of Mr. Y andPopCo, as well as theWorldquake series of children's books, andMonkeys With Typewriters, a book on how to unlock the power of storytelling. She is Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at theUniversity of Kent.

Scarlett Thomas
Scarlett Thomas, in 2006
Born	5 July 1972 (1972-07-05) (age 52) Hammersmith,London,England
Occupation	Novelist
Notable works	The End of Mr. Y PopCo Our Tragic Universe
Partner	Rod Edmond[1]
Website
www.scarthomas.com

Thomas is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst,^[3] and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, Hylands School and a boarding school for eighteen months. During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War. She studied for her A levels atChelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at theUniversity of East London from 1992 to 1995.^[4]

Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Her next three novels -Bright Young Things (2001),Going Out (2002), andPopCo (2004) - took her away from genre fiction, and she used them to "explore what it means to be trapped in a culture where your identity is defined by pop culture."^[5]

Her next novel, 2006'sThe End of Mr. Y brought her a new level of success,^[6] and was sold in 22 countries. She followed this 4 years later withOur Tragic Universe, originally to be titledDeath of the Author.^[7][8] In writing her ninth novel,The Seed Collectors,^[9] her research included studying towards an MSc inethnobotany.

Recently, Thomas started writingchildren's fiction, publishingDragon's Green in 2017, the first in theWorldquake series. It was followed byThe Chosen Ones in 2018 andGalloglass in 2019.^[10] She wrote about her experiences of writing children's fiction, including how much she enjoyed theworldbuilding.

Away from writing fiction, she has taught Creative Writing at theUniversity of Kent since 2004,^[9] and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London.^[11] She reviews books for theLiterary Review, theIndependent on Sunday, andScotland on Sunday. She has also served as a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008) jury, along with DirectorIain Softley and presided over by actorDanny Huston^[12]

Thomas has stated previously was working on a book called41-0^[13] about her year of returning to tennis - she had stopped playing when she was 14 but took it up again in 2013 to see "how high [she] could get in the rankings for [her] age." She placed in the Wimbledon Seniors in 2014. She channelled her athletic ability into running and walking, and tracked it via numerous apps, leading to a realisation she had been acting obsessively about her fitness, which she chronicled inThe Guardian in 2015^[14] and was followed by, in her words, a breakdown.^[15]

She shares with Ariel, the protagonist inThe End of Mr. Y, a wish to know everything:^[16]

"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."

In 2001 Thomas was named byThe Independent as one of 20 Best Young Writers.^[17] In 2002 she won Best New Writer in theElle Style Awards, and also featured as an author inNew Puritans, a project led by the novelistsMatt Thorne andNicholas Blincoe consisting of both a manifesto and an anthology of short stories.^[17]

• Dead Clever (1998)
• In Your Face (1999)
• Seaside (1999)
• Bright Young Things (2001)
• Going Out (2002)
• PopCo (2004)
• The End of Mr. Y (2006)
• Our Tragic Universe (2010)
• The Seed Collectors (2015)
• Oligarchy (2019)
• Thomas, Scarlett (9 April 2024).The Sleepwalkers. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.ISBN 978-1-6680-3298-5.OCLC 1424633721.^[18][19]

• Dragon’s Green (2017)
• The Chosen Ones (2018)
• Galloglass (2019)
• Cosmic Dancers (2020)
• The Great Oak: The Perfect Opportunity to Bring Parents and Their Children Together Any Time of Day (2021)

• "Brother and Sister and Foot" -Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, August 2005
• "Interlude" -Product Magazine, Winter 04-05
• "The Whole Country" -Zembla Magazine, Summer 2004
• "Why My Grandmother Learned to Play the Flute" -Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, November 2003
• "The Old School Museum" -Big Night Out, HarperCollins, 2002
• "Debbie’s Dreams" -The Stealth Corporation magazine, 2002
• "Goldfish" -Butterfly Magazine, Issue 5, 2000
• "Mind Control" -All Hail the New Puritans, 4th Estate, 2000
• "Five Easy Ways with Chilli" - 2008^[20]

• Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories (2012)
• 41-Love: A Memoir (2022)

• 2005 interview in3am magazine
• Book Review ofThe End of Mr. Y inThe Independent
• Book Review ofThe End of Mr. Y in theDawn Newspaper
• Book Reviews ofPopCo
• The Author and The Text, a lecture given by Scarlett Thomas at theUniversity of Kent
• 2007 Interview in Bookslut
• Review ofOur Tragic Universe inThe Guardian