Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

Mar 11, 2026 4:02 AM

Author:Jeanette Winterson

'Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle; it didn't matter what'

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts.

At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

'Witty… extraordinary and exhilarating' The Times

'She is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent abides' Vanity Fair

'Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language... In her hands, words are fluid, radiant, humming' Evening Standard

'A novel that deserves revisiting' Observer

'A wonderful rites-of-passage novel' Mariella Frostrup

Reviews

She is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent abides

—— Vanity Fair

Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language... In her hands, words are fluid, radiant, humming

—— Evening Standard

A novel that deserves revisiting...Winterson maintains a balance of tone, a trueness of voice... It remains one of the finest things Winterson has written

—— Observer

Still extraordinary, still brilliant

—— Metro

Even at a time when so many good and interesting novels are coming out, hers stand out as performances of real originality and extraordinary promise

—— John Bayley

Wonderful rites-of-passage novel... where the author's blossoming Sapphic nature leads her to eschew her mothers proffered favourite

—— Mariella Frostrup

It is very funny, with an Alan Bennett sort of humour, beautifully written, quirky and likely to cause much tuttutting in conservative quarters

—— Daily Mail

This lesbian coming of age story set in northern England doesn't seem to have aged a bit

—— Independent

An instant classic

—— Rosemary Goring , Herald

You'll find everything you need to know about mustering the courage to embrace your true self and live life without fear in Winterson's hugely engaging semi-autobiographical novel

—— Mariella Frostrup , Sunday Times

A stunning novel that's steeped in black history

—— Marc Chacksfield , ShortList

A mind-blowing political statement, an anguished cry of despair . . . a bomshell

—— The Weekly Review

The definitive African book of the twentieth century.

—— Moses Isegawa, author of Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit

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