Josephine Hart was the international bestselling author of six novels, as well as an anthology of poetry. Her novels, which include Damage (1991), Sin (1992), and Oblivion (1995), are notable for their spare prose and themes of lust, betrayal, and obsessive love, and have been translated into twenty-seven languages.
Hart was born and raised in Mullingar, Ireland, and later moved to London to pursue careers in publishing, theater, and then writing. She founded the Gallery Poets and West End Poetry Hour, and worked as a director at Haymarket Publishing. Shortly after marrying Maurice Saatchi, an advertising executive and former chairman of the Conservative Party of Great Britain, Hart began creating characters for her first novels. Her husband, along with close friend and fellow author Iris Murdoch, encouraged Hart to write a book, and she finally decided to do so. Her first novel, Damage, about a British politician’s affair with his son’s fiancée, was a critical and commercial triumph, selling more than one million copies worldwide. Damage was also made into the Oscar-nominated film of the same name starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.
Hart’s subsequent novels have also received wide acclaim and success, and she continues to support poetry. The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour, a monthly poetry reading at London’s British Library, has attracted such readers as Bono, Bob Geldof, and Ralph Fiennes, among many others, since its inception in 2004.
Josephine Hart passed away on June 2, 2011. She is survived by her husband and two sons.