Nicole Kennedy

Nicole Kennedy is a British comic fiction novelist who writes about modern family life. She is best known for her novels Everything's Perfect (2021) and After Paris (2022).

Kennedy was born in Romford, Essex, in 1982. She was born to Irish parents in England. She said: “I have lots of family in Mayo, and my mum lives in Boyle.” She grew up in Essex.

She won prizes for English at school and went on to study law. She attended the Sacred Heart of Mary Girls' School in Upminster. She studied law at the University of Bristol. She later spent a year at law school in London. “After my degree, I spent a year at law school in London,” she said.

Kennedy trained with the firm Norton Rose. As a trainee, she worked in aviation finance in Paris. She then moved to Dubai to work in corporate finance. She later worked in London as a corporate finance solicitor. “I worked in London as a corporate finance solicitor for two years,” she said. She then moved in-house to work for Legal & General, an insurer. She subsequently left legal work to pursue a career in fiction writing.

During her second maternity leave, she wrote poems about motherhood and family life. She posted these on a blog. She started writing her first novel during her third maternity leave. She said: 'I was feeding my third son, Felix, at night when I heard Cassie's voice in my head.' Initially, she planned to write a story about a mother on Instagram. She later finished the draft during that period of leave.

Her debut novel, Everything's Perfect, was published in 2021. It follows Cassie Holliday, an Instagram star with 1.3 million followers. Cassie posts images of her husband and gender-neutral twins every day. In reality, however, her marriage is under strain, and she is short of money. She fears becoming irrelevant. Cassie befriends Beth, a new mother with social anxiety. Their friendship changes when Beth goes viral, and they become rivals.

Kennedy wrote her second novel during the pandemic. After Paris (2022) follows three friends on a trip to Paris by Eurostar. Alice, Nina and Jules have been friends for twenty years. They return to Paris each year, but new cracks appear when they turn thirty-nine. After the weekend, they never spoke to each other again. Each of them claims that the other two ghosted them.

Nicole Kennedy lives in Kent with her husband and three sons.

Photo credit: www.nicolekennedy.com