Christine Cohen Park
I did my M.A. in the English Department at The University of Sussex, then worked at André Deutsch before briefly becoming a literary agent with MBA Literary Agency. My first novels, Joining the Grown-ups and The Househusband, were published by Heinemann. I have also co-edited two collections of short stories with Caroline Heaton. Close Company, published by Virago, was selected as one of the ten best women’s books of 1992. Caught in a Story, a collection of contemporary fairytales, was published by Vintage.
I’ve taught at Bristol University, Bath Spa, The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and later at the University of Sussex. While living in British Columbia, I spent my summers on Cortes Island, a hundred miles north of Vancouver, on the edge of wilderness. The experience of living in a stunning yet threatened environment provided the background for A Key to Lock Out Cougars, published in association with the Cortes Museum. The island and its people continue to draw me back.
Shortly after returning to the UK in 2000, I collaborated with Celia Hunt in developing an innovative M.A. in Reflective Writing (Creative Writing & Personal Development) at the University of Sussex.
During this period a renewed interest in my Jewish heritage and several research trips to Israel and Palestine, led to Our Stubborn Past, which tells part of the story of the Israel/Palestine conflict from both sides. The novel, completed a week before the Hamas attacks in 2023, is yet to be published.
Most recently, I have written about the eight months when, as a ten-year-old, I was plucked from my family in South Africa and sent to live with a father I barely remembered, and to attend an English boarding school.
First posted in episodes on Substack during 2025/26, and now developed into a full-length memoir, In My Father’s House is to be published by Caburn Press on 10th October 2026. It is the story of an all-too-brief love affair of the heart between a father and daughter which, when punctuated, presents a riddle that takes seventy more years to unravel.
My work is generally described as literary fiction, but I have always wanted it to be accessible as well as ambitious. My books tend to have political, social or environmental concerns at their core— and, I hope, strong and interesting characters.
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What writers have said about my work
‘Ms Park is a born storyteller…’
John Nicholson, The Times
‘Her second novel… invites comparison with Margaret Drabble…’
Mansel Stimpson, TLS
‘I do think Christine Park has a talent for hitting the right spot…’
Author Nina Bawden
‘Christine Cohen Park’s new novel is an immensely interesting, and certainly, timely book…’
Playwright Gail Louw
‘Her text shines with integrity…’
Author Lynn Bushell
‘This brave, well-written book draws you to cross boundaries and see the perspectives of all those involved... A must read…’
Dr Eva Coleman, psychoanalytic psychotherapist
‘A powerful, important book…’
Laura Coleman, author of The Puma Years
‘Not just timely but a necessary book …’
Gabriel Josipovici, author and former Professor of English Literature, University of Sussex,
‘[A] moving family story…’
Professor Nicholas de Lange, Wolfson College, writer and translator