Francis Spufford

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Francis Spufford FRSL (born 1964) is an English author and teacher of writing whose career has seen him shift gradually from non-fiction to fiction. His first novel Golden Hill received critical acclaim and numerous prizes including the Costa Book Award for a first novel, [1] the Desmond Elliott Prize [2] and the Ondaatje Prize. [3] In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Contents

Career

He was Chief Publisher's Reader from 1987–1990 for Chatto & Windus.

Spufford was a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Anglia Ruskin University from 2005 to 2007, and since 2008 has taught at Goldsmiths College in London on the MA in Creative and Life Writing there. In 2018 he was made a professor. [4]

Spufford specialized in non-fiction for the first part of his career, but began a transition towards fiction in 2010. In 2016 he for the first time published a book which could indisputably be classified as a novel.

Published Work

Spufford has also edited three anthologies: The Chatto Book of Cabbages and Kings (1989) (about lists used as a literary device), The Chatto Book of the Devil (1992), and The Antarctic (2008).

In March 2019, it was reported that Spufford had written an unofficial novel, The Stone Table, set in the universe of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series. This takes place during a gap in fictional fiction between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Spufford distributed self-printed copies to friends. The novel was praised as a "seamless recreation of Lewis’s writing-style". The author hoped to obtain permission from the C. S. Lewis estate to publish it commercially. In the absence of permission, the earliest publication date would be 2034, seventy years after Lewis’s death, when the copyright on the original books will expire in the UK. [11]

Personal life

Spufford was born in 1964. He is the son of social historian Margaret Spufford (1935–2014) and economic historian Professor Peter Spufford (1934–2017). He studied English literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, gaining a BA in 1985

Spufford lives just outside Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is a practising Christian and is married to an Anglican priest, the Reverend Dr Jessica Martin, who is a Residentiary Canon of Ely Cathedral. [12] He served from 2015 to 2021 on General Synod as a lay representative of the Diocese of Ely. [13]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Costa Book of the Year: Sebastian Barry celebrates second win". BBC News. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Golden Hill wins £10k Desmond Elliott Prize". The Bookseller. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  3. 1 2 Danuta Kean (8 May 2017). "Francis Spufford wins the Ondaatje prize with Golden Hill". The Guardian . Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  4. ↑ "Department of English & Comparative Literature: Francis Spufford". Goldsmiths College. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  5. ↑ "The Somerset Maugham Awards: Past Winners". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 26 June 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "Walter Scott historical fiction prize shortlist revealed". BBC News. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  7. ↑ "2017 shortlisted books". Rathbones. 15 February 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "Spufford on shortlist for Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2017 | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  9. ↑ "Books of the Year – 2017 | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "The 2021 Booker Prize longlist is". The Booker Prizes. 27 July 2021.
  11. ↑ Richard Lea (19 March 2019). "Francis Spufford pens unauthorised Narnia novel". The Guardian . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "Cathedral News" . Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  13. ↑ "General Synod election results" . Retrieved 12 December 2015.
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