Jenny Lecoat

Introduction

Jenny Lecoat is a novelist and screenwriter. Her debut novel The Girl From the Channel Islands was a New York Times bestseller.

In the 1980s she was one of the first female stand-ups on the UK Alternative Comedy circuit, before going on to write for magazines and newspapers, and later for television.

She is married to TV writer Gary Lawson and lives in East Sussex, UK.

Representation

Screen representation:
Andrew Mills at JAB Management
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Book representation:
Jenny Brown Associates
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photo portrait of Jenny Lecoat, she has short blonde hair and wears glasses
Jenny Lecoat

Background

Jenny Lecoat was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, just fifteen years after the end of World War II. These islands, part of the British Isles but only fourteen miles from the coast of France, were the only British territory to fall under Nazi Occupation.

During the war both sides of her family were heavily involved in resistance activity; one grandfather made illegal crystal radio sets for locals to access the BBC, while her mother’s family sheltered an escaped Russian slave worker. This ended in tragedy when the family was betrayed to the occupiers (the story of which would later become the basis of Lecoat’s first feature film.) The informants were never brought to justice, and these dark days were rarely discussed by older family members postwar.

By the 1960s Jersey was once again a peaceful holiday island, and young Jenny’s early years were filled with dancing lessons, story-writing and, in her teens, singing in local folk clubs. At eighteen she left to do a degree in Drama & Theatre Arts at Birmingham University, then moved to London where she was soon attracted to politics, feminism, and the burgeoning comedy scene.

By the mid 1980s she was an established stand-up, touring the UK and playing festivals in Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Montreal. She was nominated for a Perrier Award (now the Edinburgh Comedy Award) in 1986.

For the next few years she continued her live comedy but also ventured into topical sketches and improvisation. She began feature writing for a range of publications, and presented TV and radio shows, most notably Watch the Woman for the new Channel 4.

In 1994 she retired from performing to become a full-time writer. A year later, the 50th anniversary of Jersey’s Liberation brought her family’s history to public attention, and she resolved that one day she would write about it.

a German soldier during the second world war standing overlooking Saint Ouens bay in Jersey
A German soldier in Jersey during WWII
illustrative map showing the location of Jersey in the English channel
Jersey, largest of the Channel Islands
jenny performing on stage at the Edinbugh festival in 1986
Edinburgh Festival, 1986
Jenny (and others) together with former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock during the Red Wedge Comedy Tour in 1987
Red Wedge Comedy tour, 1987