Joanne Harris is an acclaimed contemporary English writer who writes under mixed genres, such as magic realism and gastromance. She was born in Barnsley in Yorkshire, to an English father and a French mother. Her parents were both teachers of modern languages and literature at a local grammar school. Her first language was French, which caused divisions between her English family, where nobody spoke French, and her French family, where nobody spoke English. After a single, unsuccessful year as an accountant, which she describes as "like being trapped in a Terry Gilliam movie", she trained as a teacher at Sheffield University, and for fifteen years she taught modern languages, mostly at Leeds Grammar School, a boys' independent school in Yorkshire. She also taught at Sheffield University, lecturing on aspects of French literature and film. During this period she worked on a number of book projects. Holy Fools opens in a nunnery, with the story of a young woman, Juliette, now known as Souer Auguste, and her young daughter Fleur. Juliette is escaping from her past, it seems, as a circus performer, and living as a nun to protect herself and her daughter from Guy LeMerle, a mysterious man known as The Blackbird, who, it is suggested, is Fleur's father. When the old Abbess dies, a young girl, Mère Isabelle, and her advisor, Père Columbin, who is none other than LeMerle, replace her. Chaos ensues in the nunnery, as the pair apparently try to restore order but in fact create utter chaos… Enjoy free online English audiobook “Holy Fools”, a novel by Joanne Harris.
