East Lancashire was the place which raised one of the UK's most acclaimed living authors, and this is her story.

Born in Manchester in 1959, Jeanette Winterson was adopted by an evangelical Pentecostal couple from Accrington shortly after her birth.

Growing up in a strict religious household, Winterson was destined to become a missionary abroad until she fell in love with a girl at 16 and left home.

For the next few years, Winterson slept in her Mini (as well as in a tent, at her friend’s houses and some short periods where she stayed back at home), before studying English Literature at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.

She published her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, aged 25. The book was a retelling of her childhood, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story. It was a big success.

In 1990 the book was made into a three-part BBC TV series that won a BAFTA for Best Drama and was named by The Guardian as the eight best television drama series of all time.

More than two decades later she revisited her childhood in the internationally bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

In her memoir, Winterson writes about growing up as a lesbian in the industrial North of England in the 60s in a deeply religious family.

In the memoir, she writes about her love for literature that stemmed from visiting Accrington Library, the natural theatre of Accrington market, and how she would go on walks in the West Pennine Moors.

Winterson has written 13 novels and three collections of short stories, as well as children's books, non-fiction and screenplays.

She has books in print in 22 countries, has been awarded an OBE and CBE, has done a TED Talk called Is Humanity Smart Enough to Survive Itself?, and in 2023 she was invited to do a Literary Rendezvous for CHANEL with Keira Knightley and Erica Wagner.

Her latest book, Night Side of the River, released in 2023, is a collection of ghost stories and was named the most anticipated book of the autumn by The Times in 2023.

Winterson now lives in the Cotswolds and has a house in Spitalfields in London.

Since 2013 she has been a Professor of Creative Writing for MA courses at the University of Manchester.