The Women of the Castle

Jessica Shattuck is the author of the novels The Women in the Castle, a New York Times Bestseller and winner of The New England Book Award; Perfect Life; and The Hazards of Good Breeding, which was a New York Times Notable Book, a Boston Globe best book of the year, and a finalist for the 2003 PEN/Winship Award. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Glamour, Open City, and The Tampa Review among other publications.

Joan has 30 years of experience as an actress, enjoying all aspects of work including audiobooks, commercials, radio drama, TV, theatre and film. Recent theatre work includes a world tour of Mamma Mia! playing the man-eating Tanya; Lady Fancyfull, the ditzy schemer in The Provok'd Wife at Greenwich Theatre; and Ingrid in The Tide at the Soho Theatre. Favourite roles for BBC Radio Drama include Dorothy Parker in Regret is No Part of My Plan for Radio 4, Madame Beck in Villette for Radio 4 and the Voice of God in The Piper Alpha Disaster for Radio 3.