Meet the Author (Virtually)
According to that absolutely unimpeachable font of all wisdom, Wikipedia:
Atkinson was born in York, the daughter of a shopkeeper. She studied English literature at the University of Dundee, gaining her master's degree in 1974. Atkinson subsequently studied for a doctorate in American literature, entitled "The post-modern American short story in its historical context". She has often spoken publicly that she failed at the viva (oral examination) stage. After leaving university, she took on a variety of jobs from home help to legal secretary and teacher. Atkinson has been married twice, whilst a student to the father of her first daughter Eve, and subsequently to the father of her second daughter Helen.Kate Atkinson on Life After Life
Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year ahead of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh and Roy Jenkins's biography of William Ewart Gladstone. It went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller. Since then, she has published another five novels, one play, and one collection of short stories.
Her work is often celebrated for its wit, wisdom and subtle characterisation, and the surprising twists and plot turns. Some of her work has featured the former detective Jackson Brodie. She has frequently criticised the media's coverage of her work—when she won the Whitbread award, for example, it was the fact that she was a "single mother" who lived outside London that received the most attention.
In 2009, she donated the short story "Lucky We Live Now" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Atkinson's story was published in the Earth collection.
In March 2010, Atkinson appeared at the York Literature Festival, giving a world-premier reading from an early chapter from her novel Started Early, Took My Dog (2010), which is set mainly in the English city of Leeds.
Atkinson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
The following YouTube video was taken from an Australian book talk program sponsored by Random House and features Kate Atkinson answering questions about her best-selling book.
Reviews of Life After Life
This section probably should be ignored at least until you've finished the book, maybe even until after the discussion. After I finish a book, I always look up reviews online to see if opinions contradict or validate mine. Most of the reviews I found online were pretty favorable. This is is just a sample via clickable links.
The GuardianOn the contrary side, though, I did find this guy who apparently posts book reviews online via semi-automated comic strips uploaded to YouTube. Apparently this guy didn't like the book and was not too shy to talk about it—for 20 minutes. I thought it was a hoot, but as I said before, you might want to wait until after the group discussion before watching.
The New York Times
NPR
Salon
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