James Meek (born 1962) is a British journalist and novelist, author of ''The People's Act of Love''. He was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, and grew up in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland.

Biography

Meek attended school at

Grove Academy Grove Academy is an 11–18 mixed secondary school in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland. There are four associated feeder Primary schools linked to Grove, which are Barnhill, Craigiebarns, Eastern and Forthill. History Grove Academy was est ...

Broughty Ferry Broughty Ferry (; ; ) is a suburb of Dundee, in Scotland. It is situated four miles east of the City Centre, Dundee, city centre on the north bank of the Firth of Tay. The area was a separate burgh from 1864 until 1913, when it was incorporated ...

, Dundee, and studied at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

. His first short stories were published in the '' New Edinburgh Review'' and he collaborated with Duncan McLean on a play, ''Faculty of Rats'', which starred

Angus Macfadyen Angus Macfadyen (born 1963) is a Scottish actor. His roles include Robert the Bruce, both in ''Braveheart'' and ''Robert the Bruce'', Komodo in '' Warriors of Virtue'', Vice-Counsel Dupont in ''Equilibrium'', Jeff Denlon in the ''Saw'' franch ...

. After a few years in England Meek returned to Edinburgh in 1988, where he worked for ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

''. The following year, his first novel, ''McFarlane Boils the Sea'', was published. In 1990 he helped McLean set up the garage publishing house Clocktower Press. In 1991, Meek moved to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, and in 1994 to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He joined the staff of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', becoming its Moscow bureau chief. In 1999, he moved to London. He left the ''Guardian'' in 2005. He is the author of five novels, two books of short stories and a book of essays about privatisation. He is a contributing editor to the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

''.

Fiction

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Meek was associated with the emerging experimental realist school of Scottish writers, including

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist and short story writer. His 1993 novel ''Trainspotting (novel), Trainspotting'' was made into a Trainspotting (film), film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, ...

and Alan Warner, appearing with them on the pages of the Kevin Williamson-edited short story collection ''Children of Albion Rovers''. His fiction during this time – two novels and two books of short stories – was characterised by surrealism and absurdism and influenced by writers such as

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

and

James Kelman James Kelman (born 9 June 1946) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist. His fiction and short stories feature accounts of internal mental processes of usually, but not exclusively, working class narrators and their ...

. Meek has described it as "magical dirty realism". Meek’s third novel, ''The People’s Act of Love'', published in 2005, brought him critical acclaim and a wider audience. It was translated into more than twenty languages and earned a number of awards and a nomination for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' magazine named it one of the top ten works of fiction of the 2000s.

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...

optioned the book for a film adaptation. ''The People's Act of Love'', about a woman and her three lovers in a small Siberian town during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, was followed by ''We Are Now Beginning Our Descent'' (2008), the story of a journalist who travels to Afghanistan immediately after

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, and ''The Heart Broke In'' (2012), set in contemporary Britain, where a newspaper editor blackmails a TV producer into betraying his sister.

Journalism

Besides reporting on Britain and the former Soviet Union, Meek covered the military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. In 2003 he crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq, following the invading American armies to Baghdad in a small group of journalists that included

Dexter Filkins Dexter Price Filkins (born May 24, 1961) is an American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for ''The New York Times''. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his dispatches from Afghanistan ...

. In 2014 Meek published ''Private Island'', a collection of essays, mainly from the ''

'', about the privatisation of Britain.

Awards and honours: Fiction

*2005:

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council (), was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the Scottish Government as well as National Lottery funds ...

Book of Year Award, ''The People's Act of Love'' *2005: Ondaatje Prize, ''The People’s Act of Love'' *2005:

, long list, ''The People's Act of Love'' *2008: Le Prince Maurice Prize, ''We Are Now Beginning Our Descent'' *2012: Costa Book Award, shortlist, ''The Heart Broke In''

Awards and honours: Non-fiction

*2002: Reuters-IUCN Media Award *2003: British Press Awards Foreign Reporter of the Year *2004:

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

Journalist of the Year *2015: Orwell Book Prize

Bibliography

* ''McFarlane Boils the Sea'' (Polygon, 1989), * ''Last Orders and Other Stories'' (Polygon, 1992), * ''Drivetime'' (Polygon, 1995), * ''The Museum of Doubt'' (Rebel Inc, 2000), * ''The People's Act of Love'' (Canongate, 2005), * ''We Are Now Beginning Our Descent'' (Canongate, 2008), * ''The Heart Broke In'' (Canongate, 2012) * ''Private Island. Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else'' (Verso, 2014), * ''Dreams of Leaving and Remaining'' (Verso, 2019), * ''To Calais, In Ordinary Time'' (Canongate, 2019),

Notes

External links

Interview With James Meek
(author interview) {{DEFAULTSORT:Meek, James 1962 births Living people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British male journalists British male novelists London Review of Books people The Guardian journalists 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British novelists