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Left: me straining myself trying to smile for the camera. Right: aged about nine or ten, dressed for the school Victorian Day. Costume credit goes to my Mum!

Official bio

Faye L. Booth was born in Lancashire in 1980 and continues to live in the county. She shares her home with a menagerie of animals and has given up denying her eccentricity.

A bit more

Every time I try to write a decent bio for myself, I'm never happy with the results, so I'm giving up and taking some inspiration from a couple of those questionnaire memes you see floating around online.

A FEW VITAL STATISTICS
Middle name: Louise, like practically every other woman I seem to encounter.
Sex: Fairer.
Date of birth: Saturday 25th October 1980.
Star sign: The sign of perverts and sociopaths.
Religion: Irreverent skeptic/hedonist.
Occupation: Scandalous lady novelist/sleazy bodiceripper.
Place of birth: Westhoughton.
Hair colour: Bottle black.
Eye colour: Grey.
Skin tone: Borderline anaemic.
Piercings: None, not even my ears.
Tattoos: A 19th Century séance on my back (see here for more info).
Lefty/righty: Pencils to the right, politics to the left.

AND A FEW FAVOURITES
Favourite book: Far too many to list.
Favourite movie: There are several, but I always seem to end up coming back to Heavenly Creatures.
Favourite band/musician: Varies according to mood, but honourable mentions must go to Morrissey (with or without The Smiths), Emilie Autumn and Nick Cave.
Favourite colour: Pastels for decorating, black for clothing and brown in general.
Favourite food: Varies according to mood, but I love fresh fruit & veg, pulses, pasta and nice bread.
Favourite drink: Fruit juice.
Favourite perfume: Anything sweet and (I'm told) sickly.
Favourite TV show: Forever Blackadder! If you're interested, my favourite episode in general is Sense and Senility, from the third series. Favourite first series episode is The Archbishop, second series Head, fourth series Major Star, and my favourite special (and favourite Blackadder outing full stop) is, predictably, Blackadder's Christmas Carol.
Favourite superhero: I don't like superheroes.
Favourite evil genius: You expect me to narrow it down?!
Favourite weather: Thunderstorms, minus the sweaty bit just beforehand.
Favourite season: Autumn.
Favourite holiday: Symbolically speaking, Halloween. Otherwise, any that involve me getting pressies. I always think birthdays should be considered a personal holiday.
Favourite joke: Two men are standing in the street looking at shirts in a shop window. One says to the other, 'That's the one I'd get,' and a cyclops comes round the corner and kicks the crap out of him. That's probably got a very narrow regional appeal.
Favourite TV ad: Guinea pigs with credit cards or drumming gorillas!
Favourite poem: I have a few - The Raven (clichéd but true, I'm afraid, plus my parrot Hugo does occasionally honour my requests and quoth 'nevermore'), The Lady of Shalott and the criminally-neglected Mary's Ghost.
Favourite philosopher: Does Oscar Wilde count? Of course he does.
Favourite decade: 80s (1880s, that is), as long as I don't have to live there.
Favourite time period: Guess!
Favourite historical figure: That's a tough one, because to be honest, I'm not that bothered about the rich and famous (who constitute most of the individuals we know about today). I'm far more interested in what the people at the bottom were doing. That being said, I like to think I would have got on fairly well with Percy and Mary Shelley, or Oscar Wilde.
Favourite word: Bittersweet.
Favourite foreign word: Perroquet. Sounds like an avian game played with hoops and mallets.
Favourite quote: I have many, but to name just one - "All men think all men mortal, but themselves." (Edward Young)
Favourite number: ISBN-10 0230529666.

Amazing artwork by Noelle Tatro, in tribute to Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies and featuring yours truly.

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