Lloyd David Jones (born 23 March 1955) is a New Zealand author. His novel ''

Mister Pip ''Mister Pip'' (2006) is a novel by Lloyd Jones, a New Zealand author. It is named after the chief character in, and shaped by the plot of Charles Dickens' novel ''Great Expectations''. The novel is set against the backdrop of the civil war on B ...

'' (2006) won the

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

and was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

Early life, education and family

Jones was born in

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most ...

in 1955, and attended

Hutt Valley High School Hutt Valley High School is a state coeducational secondary school located in central Lower Hutt, New Zealand. A total of students from Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18) attend the school as of making the school one of the largest in the Wellingt ...

and

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kn ...

. Despite fulfilling the requirements of a political science degree, Jones was unable to graduate from university at the time due to library fines owing; he eventually completed his course of study and graduated in 2007. He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Victoria University in May 2009. Jones's older brother is property investor and former politician

Sir Bob Jones Sir Robert Edward Jones (born 24 November 1939) is a property investor, author and former politician in New Zealand. During the course of various political campaigns, he has developed a reputation for making highly controversial off-the cuff ...

. He also has three older sisters. Jones' partner is Australian writer

Carrie Tiffany Carrie Tiffany (born 1965) is an English-born Australian novelist and former park ranger. Biography Tiffany was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and migrated to Australia with her family in the early 1970s. She grew up in Perth, Western Australi ...

. He has two sons and a daughter. One of his sons, Avi Duckor-Jones, was the winner of the first season of reality television show

Survivor NZ ''Survivor NZ'' was a New Zealand reality game show based on the international '' Survivor'' format. The series premiered on 7 May 2017 on the TVNZ 2, which also holds the broadcast rights to ''Australian Survivor''. The show was renewed for a se ...

in 2017. His other son, Sam Duckor-Jones, is an artist and poet.

Literary career

After leaving university and spending time travelling overseas, Jones became a sports reporter at ''The Evening Post'', and began writing fiction. His first novel, ''Gilmore's Dairy'' (1985), was a satirical novel about a young man growing up in a small New Zealand town, and was followed by ''Splinter'' (1988), a novel set in Lower Hutt with two primary narratives (one about an early immigrant and the other about a magazine editor). Like his later work, these two early novels blended suburban realism, black comedy and originality. In 1988, Jones was the recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship. In 1991 he published a short fiction collection, ''Swimming for Australia'' (1991), which was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction. In 1994 he curated an exhibition which illustrated the concept of Saturday in New Zealand life. The work was a collaboration with photographer Bruce Foster and held at the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant wo ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

. The work was published as ''The Last Saturday'' and included historical photographs, contemporary photographs by Foster and an essay by Jones. In May 2003, a theatrical adaptation of Jones' novel ''The Book of Fame'' was presented at Wellington's

Downstage Theatre Downstage Theatre was a professional theatre company in Wellington, New Zealand, that ran from 1964 to 2013. For many years it occupied the purpose-built Hannah Playhouse building. Former directors include Sunny Amey, Mervyn Thompson, and Colin ...

. It was adapted for the stage by

Carl Nixon Carl Nixon (born 1967) is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer and playwright. He has written four novels and a number of original plays which have been performed throughout New Zealand, as well as adapting both Lloyd Jones' novel ''The ...

, New Zealand novelist and playwright. In May 2007, Jones won the

for Overall Best Book Award for his novel ''

''. The novel is set during the

Bougainville Civil War The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainvill ...

of the early 1990s in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The book was also short-listed for the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

in 2007. Jones was the 2007 recipient of the

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

Berlin Writers' Residency. Jones was inspired to investigate his family history by the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

, and published a memoir, ''A History of Silence'', in 2013. In 2015 Jones spent a year in Australia as a resident writer at the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

. He subsequently spent 2016–2017 in Berlin as a recipient of a DAAD scholarship.

Awards and honours

*1989

Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship The Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, formerly known as the New Zealand Post Katherine Mansfield Prize and the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, is one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards. Named after Kathe ...

*1991 Shortlisted for New Zealand Book Award in Fiction for ''Swimming to Australia, and Other Stories'' *2002 Shortlisted for

Montana Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder W ...

Deutz Medal for Fiction (New Zealand) for ''Here At the End of the World We Learn to Dance'' *2003

Deutz Medal for Fiction for ''The Book of Fame'' *2003 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize for ''The Book of Fame'' *2004 Spectrum Print Book Design Award for Best Use of Illustration for ''Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer'' *2004 LIANZA Russell Clark Award for excellence in children's illustration for ''Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer'' *2004 New Zealand Post Book Honour Award for ''Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer'' *2005

(Commended Title) for ''Paint Your Wife'' *2005 Storylines Notable Non-fiction Book for ''Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot'' *2007 Montana Medal for Fiction (New Zealand) and Montana Readers' Choice Award for ''Mister Pip'' *2007 Shortlisted for the

for Fiction for ''Mister Pip'' *2007

Berlin Writers Residency *2007

for Overall Best Book for ''Mister Pip'' *2008 Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship *2008

Arts Foundation of New Zealand 'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The concept ...

Laureate *2008

Kiriyama Prize The Kiriyama Prize was an international literary award awarded to books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia. Its goal was to encourage greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the region. Established in 1996, the prize was last awa ...

for ''Mister Pip'' *2008 Richard & Judy Book Club - ''Mister Pip'', 10 pick of the year *2008

Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement is a New Zealand literary award established in 2003 by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand), the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government. Each ...

*2009 Honorary Doctorate Degree from

, New Zealand

Selected works

* ''Gilmore's Dairy'' (1985) * ''Splinter'' (1988) * ''Swimming to Australia, and Other Stories'' (1991) * ''Biografi: An Albanian Quest'' (1993) – a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Notable Book. * ''This House Has Three Walls'' (1997) * ''Choo Woo'' (1998) * ''Book of Fame'' (2000) * ''Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance'' (2002) * ''Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer'' (2003) * ''Everything You Need to Know about the World by Simon Eliot'', illustrated by Timon Maxey (Four Winds Press, 2004); US title, ''Everything You Need to Know About the World'' (2007) * ''Paint Your Wife'' (2004) * ''

'' (2006) * ''Hand Me Down World'' (2010) * ''The Man in the Shed'' (2011) * ''A History of Silence: A memoir'' (Auckland: Penguin, 2013) * ''The Cage'' (2018) * ''The Fish'' (2022)

References

External links

Bibliography from The University of Auckland Library

Profile on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
including entry from ''The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature'' (1998) * *Lloyd Jones featured on the Christchurch Cit
Libraries Interviews
with NZ Children's Authors site *Lloyd Jones�
Arts Foundation Laureate profile
*Lloyd Jone

(including music choices) Wednesday 21 November 2012 *Lloyd Jone
interview with Richard Fidler
ABC radio Tuesday 28 October 2014 *ABC intervie

Tuesday 8 October 2013 *One Plus One (ABC
Interview with Jane Hutcheon
11 February 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Lloyd 1955 births Living people New Zealand male novelists Victoria University of Wellington alumni People from Lower Hutt 21st-century New Zealand novelists People educated at Hutt Valley High School 21st-century New Zealand male writers