Born in Bromley South London to a Pakistani father and an English mother, His father harboured dreams of writing but his ambitions were never realised. In contrast, his son Hanif is considered to be one of the greatest British writers and actually made the Times list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. Read More
Last year’s winner was Christopher Bollen, an American novelist whose passage describing the protagonist’s love interest is both weird and utterly unsexy:
“She covers her breasts with her swimsuit. The rest of her remains so delectably exposed. The skin along her arms and shoulders are different shades of tan like water stains in a bathtub. Her face and vagina are competing for my attention, so I glance down at the billiard rack of my penis and testicles.”
The original questions were a Victorian version of the personality quizzes from Buzzfeed of Playbuzz where we find out which Spice Girl we are most like or what fruit we could have been in a past life… Sort of. The answers given are supposed to offer an insight into the personality of whoever is answering.
Originally given to Marcel Proust by his female friend Antoinette, the manuscript was not seen by the public until after Proust’s death. This unfortunately meant that Proust was given all the credit for the questionnaire when in part it should have gone to Antoinette. Such is the life of a woman- to be basically ignored while a man takes credit. Anyway, I digress… The pop legend David Bowie answered these back in the 70s, and the book of the best star answers was published in 2009- available now to purchase!
Tracy is well known for her 2000 novel The Girl With The Pearl Earring that was adapted for the big screen and starred Scarlett Johansson. Her other novels include Remarkable Creatures; The Lady and The Unicorn; and The Virgin Blue.
McCourt returned to NewYork in 1949, where he managed to survive doing odd jobs, until he was drafted during The Korean War. On his discharge he managed to bluff his way into New York University, where in 1957 he graduated with a batchelor’s degree in English. He went on to teach at six schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan and earned his master’s degree in 1967. Read More
During his time there he was also a contributing editor for Flying magazine and Avian, before finally writing his first novel Jonathan Livingstone Seagull in 1970. Bach went on to have a full literary career, writing many fiction and nonfiction books, most of which were somehow based around flying. Read More
Oates is one of the most celebrated American authors of our time and has won many awards including the National Book Award for her novel Them (US – UK), two O. Henry Awards and the National Humanities Medal. She has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize six times. Read More
This fantastic writer would scoff at anyone who proclaims that politics should be kept away from literature. We’ve gathered 10 of her most insightful quotes here for your perusal…
As a young man working in an advertising agency Carey was introduced to authors such as Faulkner and Joyce and was inspired to pick up his own pen. Thanks to his job introducing him to a wide selection of writers, Carey got the literary education he lacked at school.
After thirteen years of writing, and rejection of four of his novels, he finally hit gold with his short story collection – The Fat Man in History (1974). He is still writing today, with his recent book A Long Way from Home (2018) is a passionate and critically-minded novel about living legacies of colonialism in Australia.
The award-winning writer is one of four authors to have won the Booker Prize twice- the others being Hilary Mantel, J. G. Farrell, and J. M. Coetzee.
After studying French for his degree at Oxford, Fowles taught English, first at The University of Poitiers in France and then on the Greek island of Spetsai. It was his time on this island that gave him the inspiration for his first novel “The Magus”. Read More
