S. J. Parris

Stephanie Jane Merritt (born 1974 in Surrey) is an English literary critic and writer who has contributed to publications including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman, New Humanist and Die Welt. She was Deputy Literary Editor of The Observer from 1998 to 2005 and currently writes for The Observer and The Guardian, in addition to writing novels — under her own name as well as the pseudonym S. J. Parris. Merritt read English at Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated from Cambridg…