Gwendoline Riley

Gwendoline Riley is a novelist whose compact books examine family relationships, emotional dependence and the difficulty of understanding other people. Her first novel, Cold Water, appeared in 2002. Later books include First Love and My Phantoms, combining sharply observed exchanges with dark humour.

First Love was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her 2026 novel The Palm House turns towards friendship and literary journalism, following a freelance writer and a magazine editor as their professional and personal lives become increasingly unsettled.