Award-winning author Andrea Levy has died at the age of 62. A statement released on behalf of her family said that she died of cancer.

Levy was born in 1956 to Jamaican parents who had travelled to England on the Empire Windrush in 1948. She grew up in Highbury, north London.

Levy began writing in her mid-30s, after enrolling in a creative writing class at an adult education college in London. 

After releasing the novels, ‘Every Light in the House Burnin’ (1994), ‘Never Far from Nowhere’ (1996), and ‘Fruit of the Lemon’ (1999), Levy went on to write the best-selling novels, ‘Small Island’ (2004) and ‘The Long Song’ (2010).

‘Small Island’ was later adapted in to a BBC drama series (2009) and the BBC adaption of ‘The Long Song’ aired in December 2018. 

Rest In Peace Andrea Levy.