Sue Eckstein is a lecturer, novelist and playwright. She studied drama at Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts, Massachusetts, USA before going on to read English Literature at Durham University.
She taught English as a Foreign Language and later English Literature at Colombo International School, Sri Lanka, where she was given a work permit on condition that she wrote a traditional pantomime for the school. Three pantomimes later, she returned to the UK where she joined Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and worked as a programme manager in Bhutan and The Gambia. On return to the UK, she devised, set up and managed VSO’s Overseas Training Programme.
In 1999, Sue joined The Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King’s College London where she was Director of Programme Development, specialising in ethical issues in medical research. Since July 2007, she has been Lecturer in Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School where, in addition to teaching ethics, she has created optional humanities-based modules for medical students.
Sue co-wrote and produced The Mrs Hoover Show, a show for children under 10, at the Komedia Theatre, Brighton in 2000. The Tuesday Group, was performed in London in 2003 as part of King’s College London’s Art of Dying festival, with a cast of high-profile professional actors including Phyllida Law, Gina McKee and Amanda Mealing. Her first radio play, Kaffir Lilies, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006. Laura, another play for BBC Radio 4, was broadcast in 2008 and Old School Ties in 2009.
Her dramatisation of her first novel, The Cloths of Heaven, was the Woman’s Hour Drama in March 2010. Her second novel Interpreters was published in 2011.
Sue has a DPhil in creative writing from the University of Sussex.
Several books groups have invited Sue Eckstein to join them to discuss her novel: ‘The book group certainly enjoyed the book and meeting Sue. We thought it a fascinating exploration of life as an expat in Africa with some exciting twists and turns.’ – Micky Cohen
If you'd be interested in asking Sue to visit your book group, please contact Vicky Blunden.
'If anyone had told me a year ago that I'd be a blogger I would have laughed. I am a cautious Facebook user – by turns amused and horrified at the very public way that friends (and friends of friends of friends) conduct their lives. It feels like happening upon a hidden diary and taking the wrong decision to have a quick read...' Read Sue Eckstein's article in the Guardian on blogging.
'I've seen the NHS at its very worst and its very best and amassed huge amounts of material for next year's clinical ethics lectures; I've written an afternoon radio play pitch for an amputation comedy. And at my rehabilitation centre, with its wonderful staff and friendly volunteers, a mug of tea is only 30p.' Read Sue Eckstein's wry account of her amputation in the Guardian.
'Walnut Hill opened up my horizons. It offered me art history, pottery, drama and dance, new kinds of friends, and new experiences...'
Read Sue's article 'How Way Leads on to Way' on Behind Stowe, the online magazine of Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
'During the weeks I spent having the wound dressed and re-dressed, I always felt I was more than just a complicated wound or body part – that it was me, rather than just my wound, that was being treated. Our conversations ranged from my novel, to living and working in West Africa, tattoos and teenage girls...'
Sue talks to 'Step Forward' magazine, for the Limbless Association, about the rehabilitation she received after her amputation.
