Jessica Duchen

Jessica Duchen’s writing on classical music, opera and ballet has appeared in The Independent, The Guardian and The Sunday Times. Her first five novels have gathered a loyal fan-base and wide acclaim: most recently Ghost Variations (published by Unbound, 2016) was selected as Book of the Month in BBC Music Magazine and was among the Daily Mail’s Best Reads of 2016 (“A thrilling read” – John Suchet).   Jessica grew up in London, read music at Cambridge and felt torn at first between the prospects of a musical career and a literary one. Her interest in cross-genre arts finds music playing a vital role in her fiction as well as her journalism, and she frequently narrates concert versions of three of her novels, Ghost Variations, Alicia’s Gift and Hungarian Dances.  Current highlights include her first opera libretto, Silver Birch, for the composer Roxanna Panufnik – a commission from Garsington Opera for premiere in July 2017. Her output also includes two plays, biographies of the composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Gabriel Fauré (both published by Phaidon) and her popular classical music blog, JDCMB (http://jessicamusic.blogspot.com). Jessica lives in London with her violinist husband and two cats. She enjoys playing the piano (preferably when nobody can hear her), as well as cookery, long walks and plundering second-hand bookshops for out-of-print musical gems.