Paula Hawkins (author)

Paula Hawkins (born 26 August 1972) is a British author best known for her top-selling psychological thriller novel The Girl on the Train (2015), which deals with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. The novel was adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt in 2016. Hawkins' second thriller novel, Into the Water, was released in 2017.

Life and career
Hawkins was born and raised in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), the daughter of Anthony "Tony" Hawkins and his wife Glynne. Her father was an economics professor and financial journalist. Before moving to London in 1989 aged 17, Hawkins attended Arundel School, Harare, Zimbabwe then studied for her A-Levels at Collingham College, an independent college in Kensington, West London. Hawkins read philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, University of Oxford. She worked as a journalist for The Times, reporting on business. She then worked for a number of publications on a freelance basis, and wrote a financial-advice book for women, The Money Goddess.

She did not achieve a commercial breakthrough until she challenged herself to write a darker, more serious story. Her best-selling novel The Girl on the Train (2015) is a complex thriller, with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. The novel took her six months, writing full-time, to complete, at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father. The novel was adapted into a film in 2016. In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. Paula's second thriller Into The Water was published in May 2017 and went on to become a Sunday Times and NYT bestseller. Her novel A Slow Fire Burning was published on 31 August 2021.

Around 2009, Hawkins began to write romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver, writing four novels including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista.