Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is the book's author and main character. She is a successful writer from a working-class background in the North of England. She was born in Manchester in 1959 and adopted by the Wintersons in 1960. She grew up in a poor and unhappy household in Accrington. Jeanette was raised Pentecostal and developed a love of books at an early age, even though secular literature was forbidden by her mother.

Jeanette is a self-described aggressive, unpopular, and odd child. She does not do particularly well in school and is frequently beaten by her father at her mother's behest. She is often locked out on the doorstep overnight or locked in the cole-hole as punishments. Despite these challenges, Jeanette has a love of life, strong feminist instincts, and a desire to move beyond her given circumstances.

Jeanette falls in love with a woman around the age of fifteen...