Ferdia Lennon

Last updated

Ferdia Lennon (born 1988) is an Irish author. His debut novel, Glorious Exploits, was a bestseller that won numerous awards and was adapted for BBC Radio 4.

Contents

Biography

Lennon was born to an Irish mother and a Libyan father who split when he was young. He also has Sudanese, Arabian peninsula and Turkish heritage. Lennon grew up in Tallaght, County Dublin with his brothers. [1]

Lennon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in history and classics from University College Dublin and a Master of Arts (MA) in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia. [2] He lives in Norwich with his wife and son. [3]

Career

His debut novel, Glorious Exploits was a Sunday Times bestseller. It has been adapted for BBC Radio 4 and was the winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, the Premio Gregor von Rezzori and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. [4] [5] It was also shortlisted for several other awards, including the Nero Debut Fiction Award, formerly known as the Costa Awards. [6] the 2025 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. [7] and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Awards and honours

Literary awards

YearWorkAwardCategoryResultRef
2024Glorious Exploits Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction —Won
2024Glorious Exploits Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize —Won
2024Glorious Exploits Waterstones Book of the Year —Shortlisted
2024Glorious Exploits Nero Debut Fiction Award —Shortlisted
2024Glorious Exploits Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction —Longlisted
2025Glorious Exploits Dylan Thomas Prize —Shortlisted
2025Glorious Exploits British Book Awards —Shortlisted
2025Glorious Exploits Runciman Award —Shortlisted
2025Glorious Exploits Authors’ Club First Novel Award —Won
2025Glorious Exploits Premio Gregor von Rezzori —Won
2025Glorious Exploits Walter Scott Prize —Shortlisted [8]

References

  1. ↑ Coffey, Edel. "Writer's Block with Ferdia Lennon". The Gloss. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  2. ↑ Cummins, Anthony (31 August 2024). "Ferdia Lennon: 'I was tired of Merchant Ivory accents'". The Guardian .
  3. ↑ Lennon, Ferdia (3 January 2025). "Ferdia Lennon: 'Tolstoy made me more forgiving of myself and other people'". The Guardian.
  4. ↑ "UK: PRH's Ferdia Lennon is the 24th Bollinger Prize Winner". 2 December 2024.
  5. ↑ "Ferdia Lennon: 'I couldn't finish Finnegans Wake, I wonder if Joyce made it impenetrable because he knew he couldn't outdo Ulysses'". 22 January 2025.
  6. ↑ "Ferdia Lennon wins Wodehouse Prize and is one of several Irish authors on Nero Awards shortlists". The Irish Times .
  7. ↑ "Ferdia Lennon and Yael van der Wouden shortlisted for several awards including the £20k Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize".
  8. ↑ "2025 Shortlist announced from Abbotsford". Walter Scott Prize. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 19 April 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.