Philip Michael Hensher

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

(born 20 February 1965) is an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Biography

Son of Raymond J. and Miriam Hensher, his father a bank manager and composer and his mother a university librarian, Hensher was born in South

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

,, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, attending

Tapton School Tapton School is a secondary school with academy status located in Crosspool, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is sited next to another secondary, King Edward VII School in Sheffield, and near to Lydgate Junior School in Crosspool, ...

. He did his undergraduate degree at

Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more form ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, before attending

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...

, where he was awarded a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in 1992 for work on 18th-century

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.Contemporary British Novelists
Nick Rennison p. 65 He has published a number of novels, and is a regular contributor, columnist and

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

er for newspapers and weeklies such as ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''. ''The Bedroom of the Mister's Wife'' (1999) brings together 14 of his short stories, including "Dead Languages", which

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

selected for her ''Oxford Book of English Short Stories'' (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology. He is Professor of Creative Writing at

Bath Spa University Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshire. The inst ...

, formerly Bath College of Higher Education. From 2005 to 2012 he taught

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

at the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

, including novels by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

and

Nancy Mitford Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973), known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the London ...

. Hensher has also served as a judge 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. ...

. Since 2000 Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people in Britain, and in 2003 he was selected as one of ''Granta's'' twenty Best of Young British Novelists. In 2002 his novel '' The Mulberry Empire'' was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2008 Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel '' The Northern Clemency'' was shortlisted for the prize. In 2012 he won first prize in the German Travel Writers Award and was shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and the Somerset Maugham Award for his novel ''Kitchen Venom'' in 1996. In 2013 his novel ''Scenes from Early Life'' was shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize, and awarded the Ondaatje Prize. It is based on his husband's childhood against the backdrop of the war of independence in Bangladesh. Hensher wrote the libretto for

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: '' The Tempest'' (2004), '' ...

's opera ''

Powder Her Face ''Powder Her Face'', Op. 14 (1995), is a chamber opera in two acts by the British composer Thomas Adès, with an English libretto by Philip Hensher. The opera is 100 minutes long. It was commissioned by the Almeida Opera, a part of London's Al ...

'' (1995) and in 2015 he edited ''The Penguin Book of the British Short Story''. Hensher's early works of fiction been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy". His historical novel ''The Mulberry Empire'' "echoes with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play nggames" with narrative forms. Hensher served on the jury for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.The Scotiabank Giller Prize
Introducing the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury
/ref> Hensher is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Works

Among Hensher's novels are: * ''Other Lulus'' (1994) * ''Kitchen Venom'' (1996) * ''Pleasured'' (1998) * '' The Mulberry Empire'' (2002), Flamingo/HarperPerennial. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. * ''The Fit'' (2004) 4th Estate/HarperPerennial * ''The Northern Clemency'' (2008), HarperCollins/4th Estate. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. * ''King of the Badgers'' (31 March 2011), 4th Estate, * ''Scenes from Early Life'' (12 April 2012), 4th Estate, . Winner of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

's Ondaatje Prize (2013) * ''The Emperor Waltz'' (3 July 2014), 4th EstatePhilip Hensher - The Emperor Waltz cover art and synopsis
* ''The Friendly Ones'' (8 February 2018), 4th Estate * ''A Small Revolution in Germany'' (6 February 2020), 4th Estate He has also published two

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

collections: * ''The Bedroom of the Mister's Wife'' (1999) * ''Tales of Persuasion'' (2016), 4th Estate,

Belles lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

: * ''The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting'' (2012) * (edited) ''The Penguin Book of the British Short Story'' (2015) * (edited) ''The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story'' (2018)

References

External links

Hensher's staff pages at Bath Spa UniversityHensher's staff pages at the University of Exeter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hensher, Philip Living people 1965 births English gay writers 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists English short story writers People educated at Tapton School Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Academics of Bath Spa University Academics of the University of Exeter Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English male short story writers English male novelists 20th-century British short story writers 21st-century British short story writers 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers English LGBT novelists