Angela Carter was born in 1940. She read English at Bristol University, and from 1976-8 was a fellow in Creative Writing at Sheffield University. She lived in Japan, the United States and Australia. Her first novel, Shadow Dance, was published in 1965, followed by The Magic Toyshop (1967, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Several Perceptions (1968), Love (1971), The Passion of New Eve (1977), Nights at the Circus (1984, James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and Wise Children (1991). Three collections of her short stories have been published, Fireworks (1974) The Bloody Chamber (1979, Cheltenham Festival of Literature Award) and American Ghosts and Old World Wonders (1993). She was author of The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979) and two collections of journalism, Nothing Sacred and Expletives Deleted (1992). She died in February 1992.