C.J. Sansom, who transported millions of readers to 16th-century England with his erudite, psychologically complex mystery novels about Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer turned investigator navigating political intrigue during the Tudor era, died April 27 at a hospice center near his longtime home in Brighton, England. Read more
Tag: British Authors
British Novelist Christopher Priest Has Died
Acclaimed novelist best known for The Prestige whose large body of work never fitted into any particular literary mould. Read more
Newly Discovered String Quartet by Clockwork Orange Author Anthony Burgess to Have Premiere
He is best-known as the author of A Clockwork Orange, his 1962 savage social satire, but Anthony Burgess saw himself primarily as a thwarted musician. Although self-taught, he was a prolific composer, and now a previously unknown piece for a string quartet is to receive its world premiere following its discovery. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
AS Byatt, Author and Critic, Dies Aged 87
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, who wrote under the name AS Byatt, authored complex and critically acclaimed novels, including the Booker prize-winning Possession and her examination of artistic creation, The Children’s Book. Over her career, she won a swathe of literary awards, from the Booker to a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Read more
Moses McKenzie’s ‘Profound’ Debut Novel Wins Hawthornden Prize for Literature
The Hawthornden Prize is awarded annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of “imaginative literature”, including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction — published in the previous calendar year. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Author Michael Rosen Wins PEN Pinter Prize for ‘Fearless’ Body of Work
Writer of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a ‘passionate linguist, gifted humanist, national treasure and ambassador of gibberish’ Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Where to Start With Kazuo Ishiguro
The Japanese-born British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro is one of the most critically acclaimed authors writing in English today: the now 68-year-old was twice selected in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists issue, in 1983 and 1993, before going on to bag the Booker prize, the Nobel prize in literature and a knighthood. Earlier this year, he picked up Bafta and Oscar nominations too, for his adapted screenplay of Living, starring Bill Nighy. David Sexton suggests some good places to start for those who haven’t yet dipped in to his work. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Martin Amis, Acclaimed Author of Bleakly Comic Novels, Dies at 73
In books like “Money” and “The Information,” he created “a high style to describe low things,” as he put it. He found more renown as a critic, and a measure of unease as his famous father’s son. Read more
Anne Perry, Crime Writer With Her Own Dark Tale, Dies at 84
She was well into her career as a prolific author of historical crime fiction when a murderous past was publicly revealed and dramatized in a 1994 movie. Read more
Fay Weldon, British Novelist Who Challenged Feminist Orthodoxy, Dies at 91
By turns elusive and confessional in public, she used dark satire to explore the divides between men and women. Read more
