Candia Frances Juliet McWilliam (born 1 July 1955) is a Scottish author. Her father was the architectural writer and academic

Colin McWilliam Colin McWilliam (1928–1989) was a British architecture academic and author. Career Born in London, he graduated from the University of Cambridge and became Director of the Scottish National Buildings Record, then the Assistant Secretary of ...

Literary career

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, McWilliam was educated at St George's School for Girls in the city and

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college statu ...

, where she obtained

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

. Her first novel, ''A Case of Knives'', published in 1988, was the winner of a

Betty Trask Prize The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...

. Her second novel, ''A Little Stranger'', was published in 1989. Both books won

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from th ...

Book Awards. '' Debatable Land'', published in 1994, won the

Guardian Fiction Prize The Guardian Fiction Prize was a literary award sponsored by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Founded in 1965, it recognized one fiction book per year written by a British or Commonwealth writer and published in the United Kingdom. The award ran for 33 ...

, and in 1998 its Italian translation won the

Premio Grinzane Cavour The Grinzane Cavour Prize (1989–2009) was an Italian literary award established in 1982 by Francesco Meotto. The annual award ceremony took place in the medieval castle of Grinzane Cavour. The goal of the prize was to attract young people to re ...

for the best foreign novel of the year. McWilliam was a judge of the 2006

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. ...

Blindness

In 2004 McWilliam admitted to an audience at the

Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place in the last three weeks of August every year in Charlotte Square in the centre of Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. Billed as ''The largest festival of its k ...

that she had struggled with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. In early 2006, McWilliam began to experience the effects of

blepharospasm Blepharospasm is any abnormal contraction of the orbicularis oculi muscle. The condition should be distinguished from the more common, and milder, involuntary quivering of an eyelid, known as myokymia, or fasciculation. In most cases, blepharosp ...

and became severely

visually impaired Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

as a result. This illness caused her eyelids to be permanently shut, although her eyes were still functional. In 2007 she spoke about the experience of blindness at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and in 2008 she wrote an article about her situation for the '' Scottish Review of Books''. In 2009 she underwent an operation which harvested tendons from her leg in order to suspend her eyelids open, thus curing her blindness. In an article in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', McWilliam described her two years of blindness and the pioneering surgery that restored her sight. She went blind, she added, after years of

writer's block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

— her last novel appeared in 1994 — but she refound her voice while she was blind and dictated to a kind young friend what turned out to be a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

, ''What to Look for in Winter'', which was published in 2010. She is now at work on a novel.

Family and personal life

McWilliam's first marriage to

Quentin Wallop, 10th Earl of Portsmouth Quentin Gerard Carew Wallop, 10th Earl of Portsmouth, (born 25 July 1954), styled Viscount Lymington in 1984, is a British peer and current head of the Wallop family. Early life Quentin Wallop was born on 25 July 1954, the son of Oliver Kint ...

, produced a daughter and a son,

Viscount Lymington A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

, but ended in divorce. Her second marriage to Fram Dinshaw resulted in another son. She lived briefly with the Labour MP Mark Fisher.Candia McWilliam profile
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Bibliography

*''A Case of Knives'' (1988) *''A Little Stranger'' (1989) *'' Debatable Land'' (1994) *''Wait Till I Tell You'' (1997) (short stories) *''What to Look for in Winter: A Memoir in Blindness'' (2010)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McWilliam, Candia 1955 births People educated at St George's School, Edinburgh Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people Writers from Edinburgh Scottish memoirists Scottish women novelists Scottish short story writers 20th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Scottish women writers British women short story writers British women memoirists 20th-century British short story writers 21st-century British short story writers

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...