The Writers of Wales Database

BAINES, ELIZABETH

Email: e.baines@zen.co.uk
Website: http://www.elizabethbaines.com

Novelist, playwright, short–story writer. Elizabeth Baines is the pen–name of Helen White (nee Johnson) who was born in Bridgend and educated at University College of North Wales, Bangor. She lives in Manchester. She has been a teacher of English in schools and of Creative Writing at Manchester and Bolton universities. She is also an occasional performer. She is the author of the acclaimed short story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt Publishing, 2007) and of three novels, the latest of which is Too Many Magpies (Salt Publishing, Oct 2009). Her dramas for BBC Radio 4 have included the comedy series The Circle, a contemporary vampire serial Sweet Blood, and numerous single plays. More recently she has written short plays for theatre. She co-founded and co-edited the acclaimed short-story magazine Metropolitan (1992-1997).

She has won awards for short stories, including the Raymond Carver Competition (2008) and London Writers’ Inc (2006). Her stage play O’Leary’s Daughters was a finalist in the Moondance International Festival competition and first prize-winner in the South Tipperary Festival competition (2003). She received a Giles Cooper Award for her radio play The Baby Buggy (1990) and her radio play Rhyme or Reason was nominated for two Sony Awards (1988).

She has also contributed to literary-theory and creative-writing publications, and is a Member of Academi and of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

Reviews:
For Balancing on the Edge of the World (stories):

“…A stunning debut collection…”
Melissa Lee-Houghton, The Short Review

“…Elizabeth Baines is a superb stylist – a latter-day fabulist in fact – and her writing reminded me of Chekhov's in that it was spare and paid attention to the subtleties of everyday experience...”
Clare Dudman

For The Birth Machine (novel):
“…The first well-crafted and surreal novel from a talented new writer…”
Literary Review

"…An increasingly powerful narrative …its presentation of the world of childhood contrasts nicely with a sharp satire…”
Laura Marcus, TLS

“…This powerful book leaves you with a sense of disquiet, anger and frustration [and] the realisation…that what you have just read is an everyday story about an everyday event. As such it is very clever...”
Jessica Corner, Everywoman

For Body Cuts (novel):
“...Strikingly told...”
Sunday Times

For Rhyme or Reason (radio play):
“...Done with such skill that its grip is irresistible...”
Nigel Andrew, The Times

For The Circle (radio comedy series):
“...It isn’t every writer who in the space of a little under 30 minutes can juggle with three married couples, their respective children, and their attempts to strike a balance between parenthood, neighbourhood and livelihood...”
Peter Davalle, The Times

For What Mummy and Daddy Do (radio play):
“...Elizabeth Baines’ script cleverly conveys hypocrisy and self-delusion … a painfully funny portrait...”
Matthew Bannister, The Times


Selected Publications:
The Birth Machine (Women’s Press, 1983) (Revised edition, Starling Editions 1996)
Body Cuts (Pandora [Routledge], 1988)
Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt Publishing 2007)
Too Many Magpies (Salt Publishing 2009)

Contributed to:
Feminist Literary Theory (contributor) (Blackwell, 1986 & 1996)
Best Short Stories from Stand Magazine (contributor) (Methuen, 1988)
Best Radio Plays of 1989 (contributor) (Methuen, 1990)
Metropolitan Magazine (co-editor) (1992-1997)
The Creative Writing Handbook (contributor) (Macmillan, 1996 & 2000)
Power (contributor) (Honno, 1998)
Laughing, Not Laughing (contributor) (Honno, 2004)
Short Circuit: The Salt Guide to Writing the Short Story (contributor) (Salt Publishing, 2009)



The Birth Machine (Revised edition, Starling Editions 1996)

White rats in the lab, a murder deep in the past, Zelda strapped to a bed in a high-tech maternity ward and some mysteries about to unravel. A novel about science versus dreams and the question of where the true power of knowledge lies.

Read an extract by clicking here.

This title is available from amazon.co.uk by clicking on the front cover, or direct from the author

 

Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt Publishing, 2007)

Stories about power: children without it adults vying to get or keep it — the boy caught between divorced parents, the arts worker conman, the avenging wife. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, and always surprising: for it’s a slippery thing, power, and nothing is ever quite what it seems…

Read an extract by clicking here.

This title is available from amazon.co.uk by clicking on the front cover, or direct from Salt Publishing



Too Many Magpies (Salt Publishing, 2009)

A charismatic stranger comes into the life of a young mother fearing for her children in a polluted and changing world. He seems to offer a special kind of power… A haunting and timely novel about our hidden desires, and our rational and irrational fears in a newly precarious environment.

Read an extract by clicking here

This title is available from amazon.co.uk by clicking on the front cover, or direct from Salt Publishing