Laura Hird

(born 1966 - ) - Edinburgh

Laura Hird

Laura Hird was born in Edinburgh in 1996. She studied at Middlesex Polytechnic, graduating with a degree in Contemporary Writing. After a varied of careers, from coleslaw packer to Council Tax canvasser, a Scottish Arts Council bursary in 1997 allowed her to writer full time. She was first published in the Rebel, Inc. anthology Children of Albion Rovers in 1997, alongside other leading Scottish authors such as Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner.

The short story collection Nail & Other Stories was published in 1998, and her first novel, Born Free, was published in 1999. The novel, which was shortlisted for the Whitbred First Novel Award, took her back to her childhood home of Gorgie in west Edinburgh. Her latest anthology, Hope and Other Urban Tales, was published in autumn 2006.

She has also published a memoir, called Dear Laura. Laura's mother, June Hird (a 'thwarted actress, insatiable reader and self-confessed "constipated romantic"') wrote a stream of letters to Laura while she was at University, which Hird has used to explore her relationship with her mother.

  • Cover scan of Born Free
    Born Free Laura Hird
    This novel of intertwined adolescent and mid-life crises, comes together in the family from hell. Joni is 15 years old and boy-crazy, Jake hates his sister, Angie is having an affair, and her husband Vic is trying hard to keep the family together.
  • Cover scan of Dear Laura
    Dear Laura: Letters From A Mother To Her Daughter Laura Hird
    From the Whitbread shortlisted author of 'Born Free', this title is a heart-breaking book about a mother's unending and unconditional love.
  • Cover scan of Hope
    Hope And Other Urban Tales: And Other Urban Tales Laura Hird
    Set in the low-rent areas of Edinburgh, Hird's tales of urban despair and dysfunction are gritty, bleak and darkly funny. Yet the possibility of hope, always just out of reach, unifies this collection, conveying that just as circumstances can reveal darkness in 'good people', so seemingly irredeemable characters can harbour humanity.

Bibliography