Geraldine Bedell is a British novelist and writer for The Observer.
She drew wide public attention when she claimed she had been disinvited from a planned appearance at the first International Festival of Literature in Dubai, because her novel The Gulf Between Us featured a homosexual sheikh.
[1][2] Writer Margaret Atwood cancelled her scheduled appearance but later retracted when she found out that Bedell had never been invited to the Festival nor had her book been banned.
[4][5][6] She is married to Charles Leadbeater and is the sister of Elaine Bedell,[7] CEO of the Southbank Centre.
Bedell's first marriage was to banker Jonathan Norton, with whom she has two children.