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Francis Spufford

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Francis Spufford

FRSL
Born1964 (age 60–61)
Occupation
  • novelist
  • non-fiction writer
PeriodSince 1989
Notable worksGolden Hill
Website
www.gold.ac.uk/ecw/staff/f-spufford/

Francis Spufford FRSL (born 1964)[1] is an English author and teacher of writing whose career has shifted 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,[2] the Desmond Elliott Prize[3] and the Ondaatje Prize.[4] In 2007 Spufford was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Career

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Spufford was chief publisher's reader from 1987–1990 for Chatto & Windus.[1] He was a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Anglia Ruskin University from 2005 to 2007,[5] 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.[6]

Spufford specialised 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.

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 unauthorised novel set in the universe of C. S. Lewis's Narnia series, The Stone Table. The novel takes place between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Spufford distributed self-printed copies to friends. Writer Adam Roberts praised it as "a seamless recreation of Lewis's writing-style at its best". The author hoped to obtain permission from the C. S. Lewis estate to publish it commercially, but did not receive a response from the estate. 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.[7]

Personal life

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Spufford was born in 1964.[1] 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.[8]

Spufford lives in Ely just outside Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[9] A former atheist,[10] he is now a practising Christian and is married to an Anglican priest, the Reverend Dr Jessica Martin, who is the Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral.[11] He served from 2015 to 2021 on General Synod as a lay representative of the Diocese of Ely.[12] He said in an interview that: "I'm no longer a representative of the General Synod because I was really bad at it. Being a good talker as a writer does not translate into being any kind of successful church politician."[1]

Awards

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Year Title Award Category Result Ref.
1997 I May Be Some Time Somerset Maugham Award — Won [13]
Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award — Won
2003 Backroom Boys Aventis Prize — Nominated
2010 Red Plenty BSFA Award Non-Fiction Shortlisted
2011 Orwell Prize — Longlisted [14]
Ondaatje Prize — Shortlisted [15]
2016 Golden Hill Books Are My Bag Readers' Award Beautiful Book Shortlisted
Costa Book Award for First Novel — Won [2]
2017 Authors' Club Best First Novel Award — Shortlisted [16]
British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year Shortlisted [17]
Desmond Elliott Prize — Won [3]
Ondaatje Prize — Won [4]
Rathbones Folio Prize — Shortlisted [18]
Walter Scott Prize — Shortlisted [19]
2018 Europese Literatuurprijs — Longlisted
RUSA CODES Reading Award Historical Fiction Shortlisted [20]
2021 Light Perpetual Booker Prize — Longlisted [21]
HWA Crown Awards Gold Longlisted
2022 Encore Award — Won

Published work

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  • I May Be Some Time (1996)
  • The Child That Books Built (2002)
  • Backroom Boys (2003)
  • Red Plenty (2010)
  • Unapologetic (2012)
  • Golden Hill (2016)
  • True Stories and Other Essays (2017)
  • Light Perpetual (2021)
  • Cahokia Jazz (2023)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Kellaway, Kate (12 February 2022). "Francis Spufford: 'I felt that to call myself a writer would be a boast'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Costa Book of the Year: Sebastian Barry celebrates second win". BBC News. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Golden Hill wins £10k Desmond Elliott Prize". The Bookseller. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  4. ^ a b Danuta Kean (8 May 2017). "Francis Spufford wins the Ondaatje prize with Golden Hill". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Francis Spufford". Royal Literary Fund. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  6. ^ "Department of English & Comparative Literature: Francis Spufford". Goldsmiths College. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  7. ^ Richard Lea (19 March 2019). "Francis Spufford pens unauthorised Narnia novel". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Professor Francis Spufford". Trinity Hall Cambridge. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  9. ^ Care, Adam (3 January 2017). "Ely author 'gobsmacked' to be shortlisted for 2016 Costa Book of the Year award". Cambridgeshire Live. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  10. ^ Oldfield, Elizabeth (25 December 2019). "Why aren't we all atheists?". UnHerd.
  11. ^ "Cathedral News". Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  12. ^ "General Synod election results". Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  13. ^ "The Somerset Maugham Awards: Past Winners". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 26 June 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  14. ^ "Red Plenty | The Orwell Foundation". www.orwellfoundation.com. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  15. ^ "De Waal wins RSL Ondaatje prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  16. ^ "Spufford on shortlist for Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2017 | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Books of the Year – 2017 | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  18. ^ "2017 shortlisted books". Rathbones. 15 February 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  19. ^ "Walter Scott historical fiction prize shortlist revealed". BBC News. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  20. ^ "The Reading List". RUSA Update. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  21. ^ "The 2021 Booker Prize longlist is". The Booker Prizes. 27 July 2021.
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