Sophie Ward

Sophie Ward is an actor and writer who has worked in film and television since her feature film debut in Steven Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes, and in theatre, most notably with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.

Sophie has been an active campaigner for LGBT rights and her non-fiction book, A Marriage Proposal, was published by the Guardian in 2014.

Her first novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2020. 

For acting enquires, please not that Sophie is represented by https://theartistspartnership.co.uk/. 

Current publication: 

THE SCHOOLHOUSE - Corsair (UK) 5th May 2022 and Vintage (US) Feb 2023

Isobel was deafened in childhood. Now, she lives an isolated life in North London, working at a nearby library and feeling safe if she keeps to her routines and doesn't let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher are all it takes for her ordinary, careful armour to become overwhelmed and the trauma of what happened when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse to return.

The Schoolhouse was different - one of the 1970s experimental schools that were a reaction to the formal methods of the past. The usual rules did not apply, and life there was a dark interplay of freedom and adventure, violence and fear. It was there Isobel learned that some truths are safest kept hidden. Only her teenage diary recorded what happened. But the truth is coming for her and everything she has tried to protect is put at risk.

Set between the past and the present, The Schoolhouse is a masterful and gripping novel about the gulf between the truths we contain and the truths we reveal; about how silence keeps us safe and holds us hostage; about institutional abuse of power; and how the lessons we learn as children informs the adults we become.

Praise:

'Delivers a real emotional impact.' - the Telegraph 

'An evocative, well-paced narrative that’s sure to win her new readers' - the Observer

'Uneasy history of betrayed childhood' - the Guardian

'Very creepy and very enjoyable' - the Times

'perfectly balancing nuanced emotion and riveting suspense. This is not to be missed' - Publishers Marketplace

Previous publication

LOVE AND OTHER THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS - Corsair / Little, Brown (UK) Feb 2020 and VINTAGE / Penguin (USA) September 2021

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2020

WATERSTONES PAPERBACK 2020

LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI BOOK PRIZE 2021

Rachel and Eliza are hoping to have a baby. The couple spend many happy evenings together planning for the future.

One night Rachel wakes up screaming and tells Eliza that an ant has crawled into her eye and is stuck there. She knows it sounds mad - but she also knows it's true. As a scientist, Eliza won't take Rachel's fear seriously and they have a bitter fight. Suddenly their entire relationship is called into question.

Told in ten interconnecting but self-contained chapters - each from a different character's perspective - and inspired by some of the best-known thought experiments in philosophy, particularly philosophy of mind, Love and Other Thought Experiments is a story of love lost and found across the universe.

Praise for the book;

“This debut is an extremely original, genre-bending novel that melds Anglo-American analytical philosophy with realist social drama and futuristic science fiction, featuring travel across time, space and multiple dimensions. It's a mind-expanding, bold, constantly surprising book, full of zest and a spirit of adventure; its intellectual verve is balanced by a deep human warmth, in the rich portrayal of two women, their son and an ever-changing world.” - Booker Prize judges

'This is a conspicuously erudite, skilfully observed debut novel' - Jake Kerridge, Telegraph

'Not since Jostein Gaarder's 1991 novel Sophie's World has an author produced such an imaginative and original synthesis of fiction and philosophy' -  Irish Times

'The sheer literary ambition on show is impressive, with Ward producing a highly original first novel that also echoes European experimentalists such as Kundera and Krasznahorkai" - Spectator

'What's miraculous is that Ward is as skilful an observer as she is an abstract thinker, and so her characters, while fulfilling their roles as illustrators of theories, also burst with life' - Sunday Telegraph 

'This ingenious debut novel is a philosophical investigation into love, loss and the nature of reality'-  Guardian

'Ward has achieved something quite extraordinary: a super-smart, metaphysical romp that's also warm, wistful and heartfelt'-  Daily Telegraph

'Sophie Ward is a dazzling talent who writes like a modern-day F Scott Fitzgerald' - Elizabeth Day

'A refershing puzzle to unpick' - Diva Magazine

'It’s rare for me to fall for a novel that could be called ‘experimental’ but this genuinely blew my mind.' - The Literary Sofa

'A towering literary achievement'- Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things

'Philosophy meets fiction in this beguiling and intriguing novel of minds, hearts, other worlds, love, death and everything in between. It's a book that dances and dazzles with ideas and left me thinking long after I finished it' - Sophie Kinsella

‘It is an act of such breath-taking imagination, daring and detail that the journey we are on is believable and the debate in the mind non-stop. There are elements of Doris Lessing in the writing – a huge emerging talent here.’– Fiona Shaw, actor

‘Sophie is an innovative and highly sophisticated writer.’– Blake Morrison

‘Sophie Ward's writing is as clear as a knife sounded against a glass and just as attention-grabbing. Fiction, fable and philosophy combined together with real human folly and fate at its heart.

This book is as hard to pin down as it's impossible to forget.’- Janet Ellis

‘Sophie Ward’s Love and Other Thought Experiments is brilliant and playful. With philosophical ants, all kinds of love and family, space travel and wonderful winks toward Borges’ Pierre Menard and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, from the first page you know you’re in a unique and compelling universe of Ward’s making.’– Elizabeth Reeder

‘Love and Other Thought Experiments is acutely original and thought-provoking… With glacial clarity and depth, the polished prose winks like a gemstone; a clever interweaving of literal and metaphorical concepts, which challenges the subjectivity of knowledge; opens doors to new and imaginative perspectives. From beginning to end it is beautifully observed, intelligently constructed and deftly handled.’- Laura Carlin

‘In Love and Other Thought Experiments, a metaphysical joyride meets modern love. Strikingly original, painfully tender, this debut novel expands literary possibilities while expanding the mind.’– Margot Douaihy

‘Elegant, erudite, brave and moving, Ward’s debut is a stunning achievement.’– Beatrice Hitchman

‘Immersive and compelling... Really ingenious, full of wisdom, full of love.’– Richard Beard

‘What colour are you? What shade? Would others be able to see your hue? Sophie Ward's writing takes us gently into the worlds of thought experiments, for there are many of both. In her book – Love and Other Thought Experiments – Ward explores the concept of love, pushing at its boundaries, its depths, testing its tensile strength, with a series of narratives that carefully build to the whole.’– Malcolm Alexander

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