Ashworth, Sherry

(British, 1953– )

Currently living and teaching in Manchester, Ashworth writes novels that strive to liberate their female characters from specific anxieties and insecurities. Her witty, fast-moving dramas empower women to cast off self-made chains as well as man-made ones. Her first book, A Matter of Fat (1991) follows the fortunes of Stella, the leader of a commercial slimming club, and its various dissatisfied housewives, obsessive over-eaters, and romantic English students. The arrival of a ‘Fat Women's Support Group’ nearby allows them to question the wider cultural obsession with thinness. In her fourth novel, No Fear (1997), the protagonist, Joy Freeman, is plagued by relentless, obsessive worrying, and operates in a permanent state of near-panic, constantly expecting the worst; just looking in the mirror reminds her of Munch's The Scream. Ashworth's protagonists always brim with sufficient energy to keep you engrossed.

Fay Weldon, Mary Wesley.

See FAMILY SAGA  RP