Esther Freud

Esther Freud
FRSL
Freud in 2008
Born1963 (age 62–63)
London, England
OccupationNovelist
Years active1984–present
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2006; sep. 2020)​
Children3
FatherLucian Freud
FamilyFreud

Esther Freud (born 1963) is a British novelist, known for her autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992). She is the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud.

Early life and education

Born in London in 1963,[1] Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley, daughter of Irish Catholic parents[2] and painter Lucian Freud.[3] She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud.[4][5]

She travelled extensively with her mother as a child,[3] returning to London at 16 to train as an actress at The Drama Centre.[5][6]

Career

She has worked in television and theatre as both actress and writer. Her first credited television appearance was as a terrified diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bomb scare. A year later, she appeared as an alien in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen.[7] Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet.[8]

She is also the author of The Wild, Gaglow, and The Sea House.[9] She also wrote the foreword for The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.[10]

Freud was named as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta magazine in 1993.[9] Her novels have been translated into 13 languages.[9] She is also the co-founder (with Kitty Aldridge) of the women's theatre company Norfolk Broads.[11]

In 2009, she donated the short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.[12] As of 2014, Freud taught at the Faber Academy.

Freud was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019.[13]

Personal life

Freud has a sister, fashion designer Bella Freud,[14] and a half-brother, Noah Woodman.[15] Her uncle was politician Sir Clement Freud.[14] She has two cousins in the media industry: public relations executive Matthew and broadcaster Emma.[14] Her parents died within four days of each other, in July 2011.[16][17]

She was married to actor David Morrissey, with whom she has three children, Albie, Anna and Gene.[18] They married in 2006.[19] They had separated by 2020, when Freud began living with a boyfriend.[20] Freud maintains homes in London and Walberswick near Southwold in Suffolk as of 2015.[21][22]

Freud's maternal grandparents were Catholics but her mother was non-observant, while her father's Jewish family were atheists. She identifies as Jewish.[23][24][16]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Hideous Kinky (1992)[25]
  • Peerless Flats (1993)[26]
  • Summer at Gaglow (1998)
  • The Wild (2000)[27]
  • The Sea House (2003)[28]
  • Love Falls (2007)[29]
  • Lucky Break (2010)[30]
  • Mr Mac and Me (2014)[21]
  • I Couldn't Love You More (2021)[31]
  • My Sister and Other Lovers (2025)[25]
  • Enchanted Beach (2025)[32]

Plays

  • Stitchers (2018)[33]

Short fiction

Stories
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
Desire 2021 Freud, Esther (27 September 2021). "Desire". The New Yorker. 97 (30): 72–78.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Alice O'Keeffe (31 August 2014). "Esther Freud: 'I realised the book I'd been writing for 18 months was awful'". The Guardian.
  2. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jul/04/esther-freud-interview-hideous-kinky
  3. 1 2 White, Lesley (20 March 2011). "Esther Freud: My life on a page". The Times.
  4. ↑ Sheppard, Ruth (15 July 2021). Sigmund Freud: The Man, the Scientist, and the Birth of Psychoanalysis. 'The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc'. pp. 148–150. ISBN 978-1-4994-7119-9.
  5. 1 2 Ray, Ed Mohit K. (2007). The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 190–191. ISBN 978-81-269-0832-5.
  6. ↑ Chakrabarti, Paromita (7 February 2016). "The long way home". The Indian Express.
  7. ↑ Freud, Esther (4 April 2009). "I was an alien in Dr Who". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  8. ↑ "Hideous Kinky movie review & film summary review:". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 British Council. "Esther Freud - British Council Literature". britishcouncil.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Kira (6 September 2024). "The Summer Book film finally comes to the big screen in the UK". Moomin. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  11. ↑ "How we met: Kitty Aldridge and Esther Freud". The Independent. 9 January 1994. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  12. ↑ Oxfam: Ox-Tales Archived 20 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ "Freud, Esther". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 Bown, Jane (3 June 2000). "Back to where I once belonged". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  15. ↑ Slater, Lydia (22 February 2014). "Bella Freud: a life less ordinary". The Times. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  16. 1 2 "Bernardine Freud obituary". The Guardian. August 2011. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  17. ↑ Rosanna Greenstreet (4 July 2026). "Esther Freud: 'My parents died within four days of each other. I was engulfed'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "'Dad was quite a tyrannical critic,' Esther Freud". 9 July 2022.
  19. ↑ "Celebrity couple tie the knot in Suffolk". 14 August 2006.
  20. ↑ Preston, Alex (29 May 2021). "Esther Freud: 'I didn't learn to read till I was about 10'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  21. 1 2 Hickling, Alfred (18 September 2014). "Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud review – meeting Charles Rennie Mackintosh". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  22. ↑ Freud, Esther (16 August 2014). "Esther Freud: my house's ghosts inspired my new book". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  23. ↑ "Interview: Esther Freud". The JC. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  24. ↑ "The NS Interview: Bella Freud, designer and campaigner". The New Statesman. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  25. 1 2 Quinn, Joanna (4 July 2025). "My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud review – Hideous Kinky, the teenage years". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  26. ↑ See, Carolyn (24 May 1993). "BOOK REVIEW : Courage in the Face of Emotional Poverty : PEERLESS FLATS, by Esther Freud". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  27. ↑ Clark, Alex (10 June 2000). "Bad relations". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  28. ↑ Clark, Candida (12 July 2003). "Fragments that remain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  29. ↑ Gilmore, Jennifer (16 December 2007). "Those Summer Nights". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  30. ↑ Day, Elizabeth (27 March 2011). "Lucky Break by Esther Freud – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  31. ↑ Morris, Claire (13 July 2021). "Disturbing Realities: I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud". Historical Novel Society. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  32. ↑ Bliss, Charles (12 March 2026). "Pupils left enchanted by fresh look at reading with chance to meet picturebook author". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  33. ↑ Billington, Michael (4 June 2018). "Stitchers review – Sinéad Cusack is outstanding in Esther Freud's prison drama". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
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