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Mick Jackson (born 1960) is a British writer from England, best known for his novel The Underground Man (1997). The book, based on the life of William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and for the 1997 Whitbread Award for best first novel. [1]
Mick Jackson was born in 1960, in Great Harwood, Lancashire, and educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn. [2]
Jackson worked in local theatre, studied theatre arts at Dartington College of Arts, and played in a rock band called The Screaming Abdabs and an urban folk band, The Dinner Ladies. In 1990, he enrolled in a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia, and began working on The Underground Man. He has been a full-time writer since 1995.
He is best known for his novel The Underground Man (1997), based on the life of William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland. The book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and for the 1997 Whitbread Award for best first novel.
Jackson's other works are the novels Five Boys (2002) The Widow's Tale (2010) and Yuki Chan in Bronte Country (2016), and the short story collections Ten Sorry Tales (2006) and The Bears of England (2009). He has also written several books for children; While You're Sleeping, We're Going Places, Ava Jay Does It Her Way and The Red Sledge. Under the pseudonym Kirkham Jackson, he wrote the screenplay for the 2004 television film Roman Road . He lives in Brighton.
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was an English writer. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. She won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996, and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize. She was described in 2007 as a national treasure. In 2008, The Times named Bainbridge on their list of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945".
David John Lodge CBE is an English author and critic. A literature professor at the University of Birmingham until 1987, some of his novels satirise academic life, notably the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988). The second two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another theme is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge has also written television screenplays and three stage plays. After retiring, he continued to publish literary criticism. His edition of Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1972) includes essays on 20th-century writers such as T. S. Eliot. In 1992, he published The Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on literary techniques with illustrative examples from great authors, such as Point of View, The Stream of Consciousness and Interior Monologue, beginning with Beginning and ending with Ending.
William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, styled Lord John Bentinck before 1824 and Marquess of Titchfield between 1824 and 1854, was a British Army officer and peer, most remembered for his eccentric behaviour. A recluse who preferred to live in seclusion, he had an elaborate underground maze excavated under his estate at Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire.
Earl of Portland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, firstly in 1633 and secondly in 1689. What proved to be a long co-held title, Duke of Portland, was created in 1716 and became extinct in 1990 upon the death of the ninth Duke, at which point the earldom passed to the most senior agnatic cousin, namely one of the 6th degree.
William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland,, styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1809, was a British politician who served in various positions in the governments of George Canning and Lord Goderich.
William Andrew Murray Boyd is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.
Kate Atkinson is an English writer of novels, plays and short stories. She is known for creating the Jackson Brodie series of detective novels, which has been adapted into the BBC One series, Case Histories. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in 1995 in the Novels category for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, winning again in 2013 and 2015 under its new name, the Costa Book Awards.
William Trevor Cox, known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
Andrew Brooke Miller FRSL is an English novelist.
Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, Count Bentinck of Waldeck Limpurg,, commonly known as Tim Bentinck, is an English actor and writer, known for his long-running role as David Archer in the BBC Radio 4 series, The Archers.
William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, styled Viscount Woodstock from 1709 to 1716 and Marquess of Titchfield from 1716 to 1726, was a British peer and politician.
The Bentinck family is a prominent family belonging to Dutch, German and British nobility. Its members have served in the armed forces and as ambassadors and politicians, including as Governor General of India and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The family is related to the British royal family through the maternal Cavendish-Bentinck line of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland,, known as William Cavendish-Bentinck until 1879, was a British landowner, courtier, and Conservative politician. He notably served as Master of the Horse between 1886 and 1892 and again between 1895 and 1905.
The Underground Man (1997) is a novel by Mick Jackson. Critically acclaimed, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for that year. It shows the life of an eccentric and reclusive Victorian Duke, loosely modelled on William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland. His latest scheme involves building a set of tunnels beneath his estate.
Rachel Cusk is a British novelist and writer.
Welbeck Abbey is an English mansion situated in the village of Welbeck, which is within the civil parish of Norton, Cuckney, Holbeck and Welbeck, in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire. It was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is part of the Dukeries, four contiguous ducal estates in North Nottinghamshire. The house is a Grade I listed building.
Charles William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck was a priest of the Church of England who held livings in Bedfordshire. He was also the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and a great-great-grandfather of King Charles III.
Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck, 8th Duke of Portland was a British peer and grandson of George Cavendish-Bentinck.
Adam Thorpe is a British poet and novelist whose works also include short stories, translations, radio dramas and documentaries. He is a frequent contributor of reviews and articles to various newspapers, journals and magazines, including the Guardian, the Poetry Review and the Times Literary Supplement.
Henrietta Bentinck, Duchess of Portland was the wife of William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland.