Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Newsletters
Sign in

Charlotte Mendelson

Charlotte Mendelson is a novelist. Her most recent book, Daughters of Jerusalem, won the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys prize. Her next, When We Were Bad, will be published by Picador in May 2007.

Visit her website at charlottemendelson.com

August 2024

  • books

    ‘A rumpled paperback showed me I was not alone’: Charlotte Mendelson, Michael Rosen and others on the books that marked their coming of age

    From a children’s classic to a novel of forbidden love, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kaliane Bradley, Donal Ryan and more recall their formative reading experiences

March 2023

  • Charlotte Mendelson

    The books of my life
    Charlotte Mendelson: ‘Susan Cain’s Quiet made me realise I’m a noisy introvert’

    The novelist on why she finally gave Tolstoy and Dickens a whirl, being a noisy introvert, and reading crime in the bath

July 2022

  • Illustration by Neil Webb.

    Summer reading: the 30 best holiday reads – chosen by authors and critics

    Novelists including Johny Pitts, Monica Ali and Nina Stibbe – plus Observer critics – on their essential holiday books

March 2022

  • Charlotte Mendelson in her garden.

    ‘I couldn’t face the resentment and rage’: can artistic couples have successful relationships?

    From Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath to Philip Roth and Claire Bloom – novelist Charlotte Mendelson on the seething envy within famous partnerships

March 2021

  • Charlotte Mendelson on her roof terrace.

    Charlotte Mendelson: ‘I was so in love with my first garden that I wrote a book about it’

    When the novelist moved house, she left her beloved garden behind. But over lockdown, she discovered the joy of starting over

July 2019

  • Marchers walk down 5th Avenue as they part in the 2019 World Pride NYC and Stonewall 50th LGBTQ Pride Parade in New York, U.S., June 30, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

    Further reading
    Pride and prejudice: the best books to help with coming out

    An exquisite kiss from Virginia Woolf, hot skin from Carol Ann Duffy … Charlotte Mendelson picks books to inspire LGBTQ readers

December 2017

  • Fairy godmother type handing a youngster a book in a fairy woodland setting

    'If only I'd been warned!' - writers choose books to give to their younger selves

    Julian Barnes, Margaret Drabble, Tessa Hadley, David Nicholls and others choose reading matter that would have been useful when young

December 2016

  • A young Kamin Mohammadi, right, with her sister Narmin and the family Christmas tree.

    How we embraced Christmas

    What does Christmas mean if it was not part of your family tradition? Three writers share their memories

September 2016

  • Charlotte Mendelson:

    My writing day
    Charlotte Mendelson: ‘I live for the moments when something comes into verbal focus’

  • Charlotte Mendelson in her garden

    Salad days: how author Charlotte Mendelson transformed her patio into a garden larder

August 2013

  • charlotte mendelson, novelist

    Twitter fiction
    Twitter fiction: Charlotte Mendelson

    The novelist takes up our Twitter-based challenge to come up with a story in 140 characters or fewer
  • Iris Murdoch

    My hero
    My hero: Iris Murdoch by Charlotte Mendelson

    More than almost any other writer, she understands the currents beneath the surface, writes Charlotte Mendelson
  • charlotte mendelson

    Forty words of love in Hungarian

    As a child, Charlotte Mendelson thought her grandparents' native Hungarian sounded ridiculous. But now her tiny vocabulary keeps their memory alive

July 2012

  • Elizabeth Taylor, author

    The other Elizabeth Taylor's Complete Short Stories

    Few writers are better on loneliness, private passions and pain than Elizabeth Taylor, yet she is not as widely read as she deserves. Charlotte Mendelson celebrates the publication of her collected short stories

February 2008

  • Books blog
    The pursuit of unhappiness

    From the ancient Greeks to Anne Enright, there's nothing more satisfying than reading about dysfunctional families

February 2003

  • Born to be wild, mild or middling

    If you're the eldest, you're hard-working; if the youngest, carefree. And the middle child? Charlotte Mendelson on just how much birth order can shape your destiny.

October 2002

  • The gospel truth

    Carol Ann Duffy proves yet again to be an unparalleled poet with her new collection, Feminine Gospels

May 2001

  • Blame it on the boogie-woogie

    The narrator's odd. So are the clunky details

February 2001

  • Paperbacks

    Marion Meade is no hagiographer, but Allen is no saint... plus The Tale of Murasaki, Under the Skin, Cornucopia and Books and Company Issue Nine

Explore more on these topics