Justin Cartwright’s latest novel, The Promise of Happiness, is the story of a middle-class English family trying to cope with crisis and strained relationships. Charles Judd, a 68 year old accountant and his wife Daphne have retired from London to the seaside town of Cornwall. Two years earlier, their beloved daughter Ju-Ju was imprisoned for her part in an art theft in New York. Charles becomes obnoxious and passively aggressive towards Daphne. He takes walks along the coastline with his dog, avoiding the pubs and old acquaintances because he is ashamed of his daughter’s imprisonment. As the novel opens the couple await Ju-Ju's release. Their son Charlie is bringing her home and helping her settle back in. Sophie, the youngest daughter, is a drug addict who decides to get her chaotic life under control. She is seeing a man 20 years her senior, something that repulses Charles who had extra-marital affairs with women 20 years his junior. His son Charlie is the dependable son, but he is doubtful about marrying the glamourous Ana, who is pregnant. The whole family is reunited at Charlie's wedding.
Most of Cartwright's previous novels have been set in Africa, with the 1998 Whitbread Award-winning Leading the Cheers set in the USA where he lived for a year. In Every Face I Meet won the Commonwealth Writers Prize after being short-listed for the Booker prize in 1996. In South Africa, he has won the M-Net and CNA awards.
He was born in Johannesburg and educated at Bishops in Cape Town. His father, A.P. Cartwright, was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail. His mother was half-Afrikaans and a grandfather was Australian. Ater studying for an arts degree at Wits, Cartwright left South Africa in the 1960s to read politics at Trinity College, Oxford. After university he worked in the advertising industry as a copywriter and commercials director before becoming a full-time writer. He often writes his books in longhand in the British Library, and contributes articles on cultural and literary topics to various British newspapers. A documentary on D-Day which he co-directed, was nominated for an Oscar in 1994. He lives in North London with his wife and has two sons, one is a doctor.
