Novelist Lucy Ellmann moved to England at the age of 13 and was educated at Falmouth School of Art (Foundation degree, 1975), Essex University (BA, 1980), and the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, 1981).
 
Her highly-praised autobiographical first novel, Sweet Desserts (1988), was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Both her second book, Varying Degrees of Hopelessness (1991), and her third, Man or Mango? (1998), were shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction). Her most recent novel was Mimi.