Jenny Downham Quotes

Jenny Downham — British Novelist born on December 29, 1964,

Jenny Downham is a British novelist and an ex-actress. She has published two books. The first, Before I Die, is the fictional account of the last few months of a sixteen-year-old girl who has been dying of leukaemia for four years. The book is told in the first person... (wikipedia)

If I learnt anything at all about terminal illness in my research, it's that the experience is different for everyone. I do believe that life becomes concentrated when it's boundaried and that death is the biggest boundary of all.

As an actor I worked for seven years with a community theater company based in London. We used improvisation techniques to take stories to young people who wouldn't normally have access to them - in prisons, hospitals, young offender's units, youth clubs and housing estates.

I get a lot of letters, mostly from family members who have been affected by cancer rather than young people themselves. I reply to them all.

I never plan a structure. I like surprises. I'm quite disciplined and sit at my desk every day and just write.

When my second child was born, I gave up acting - two young children out on the road was too difficult to manage. I'd always written, but began to do so with real commitment now that it was my only creative outlet. I used all my acting techniques to do it. I still do.

Jenny Downham Quotes

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