Jeanette Winterson to become professor of writing at the University of Manchester

The Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author will take up her position as professor of creative writing in October

She will teach graduates and undergraduates at the university's Centre for New Writing, and give four public lectures each year. She succeeds Colm Toibin and Martin Amis in the role.

Lancashire-born, Jeanette Winterson was brought up in Accrington. Her most recent book, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, is a memoir of growing up there in a strict religious household - also the subject of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, her first and best-known novel. She is to publish The Daylight Gate, a novella on the subject of the Lancashire witches, in August.

Website: www.jeanettewinterson.com