Emily Elgar

I’m an 80’s child and grew up mostly in the West Country, but I’ve had spells in New York, London, and Southern Africa. I now live in East Sussex with my husband and our cat, A-Dog.

I started taking writing seriously when I was accepted onto the Faber Academy six month novel writing course in 2012. At the time, I was a support worker for male, female and transgender sex workers in London. I took the course because I love writing, not because I was necessarily seeking a change in career. It felt too audacious to transform myself into a novelist! After some knocks, I wrote – in a frenzy at 4am one morning – what is now the preface to If You Knew Her. From the off, it felt different to everything I’d written before. The words galloped out of me.

I met my agent, the brilliant Nelle Andrew, soon after the course finished. Nelle sent an early draft of If You Knew Her to publishers and in October 2014 I signed a contract with the fantastic Lucy Malagoni at Little, Brown.

What followed was an intense, but enjoyable, two years of completely reworking the book. The result is If You Knew Her. I really hope you enjoy it.