Wendy Perriam is a British novelist and graduate of
St Anne's College, Oxford, who started writing at the age of five and wrote her first novel at eleven. Perriam then went silent as she struggled through a long period of depression and physical illness, having been expelled from her
Catholic school for heresy and told she was in Satan's power. Many of her early novels explore the perils and, conversely, the great attractions of
Catholicism. Perriam's work is also renowned for its explicit sexual content. In 2002, after being nominated for both two preceding prizes, she won
Literary Reviews Bad Sex in Fiction Award for
Tread softly. Perriam has appeared frequently on television and radio, and was once a regular contributor to the radio series
Stop the Week and
Fourth Column. She has also written for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, and appeared at many leading literary festivals. Her work has been critically acclaimed for its psychological insight and for its power to disturb as well as divert. She was described by the
Sunday Telegraph as "one of the most underrated writers in the country", Her 16th novel,
Broken Places, published in paperback in 2012, was shortlisted for 2011 'Mind Book of the Year' award. In January 2013, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her "outstanding contribution to literature and reading pleasure", by
Kingston University, which houses her archive. ==Personal life==