Getting out of the House

Maureen Freely and Joan Smith's latest books eschew domestic themes. Instead they focus on global issues and the impact of the political on individual lives. Both Enlightenment and What Will Survive have strong, independent women at their heart and bold, dramatic storylines. The authors discuss their choice to leave the domestic realm to others and to root their books in real events.  

Maureen Freely was born in the United States, and grew up in Istanbul. She was educated at Harvard University. She is a translator, an academic at the University of Warwick and a writer. She now lives in England.  Freely is a controversial writer who is not afraid to criticize the Turkey she loves. She defended Orhan Pamuk, two of whose novels she has translated, when he was prosecuted under Article 301 for un-Turkish behaviour, and has also assisted Turkish authors Perihan Magden and Elif Shafak who were prosecuted under similar articles. Her latest book Enlightenment is a gripping political thriller set in Turkey.

Joan Smith is a novelist, columnist and human rights activist. She is known for her lively and controversial columns in the Independent, Independent on Sunday, Tribune and the Evening Standard. Joan contributes to the Times and Sunday Times, and appears on such BBC current affairs programmes as Today, Woman's Hour and The World Tonight. She has campaigned for persecuted writers around the world, chairing the English PEN Writers in Prison Committee for four years, and advised the Foreign Office on freedom of expression. Described as “an intriguing weave of thriller, polemic and satire”, her latest book, What Will Survive is partly set in occupied Lebanon.