John Murray (born 1950,

Flimby Flimby is a coastal village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Maryport, in the Cumberland district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It was historically in Cumberland. It is included in the Maryport South county divisio ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

) is an English writer and

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 wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

known for writing

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

novels on a range of subjects. He read Sanskrit at

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

. In 1984 he founded the fiction magazine ''

Panurge Panurge (from , used to mean "knave, rogue") is one of the principal characters in ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', a series of five novels by François Rabelais. Especially important in the third and fourth books, he is an exceedingly crafty knave, ...

'', which he edited with fellow author

David Almond David Almond (born 15 May 1951) is a British author who has written many novels for children's literature, children and young adult fiction, young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim. He is one of thirty children's writers, and ...

until 1996. Panurge Publishing published Julia Darling's debut collection of short stories, ''Bloodlines'' in 1995. Murray's first novel, ''Samarkand'', was published in 1985 (it was broadcast on BBC Radio 3)) and in 1988 he received the Dylan Thomas Award for 2 stories out of his collection, ''

Pleasure Pleasure is experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals find ...

''. In 2002 his novel ''

John Dory John Dory, St Pierre, or Peter's fish, refers to fish of the genus ''Zeus'', especially ''Zeus faber'', of widespread distribution. It is an edible demersal coastal marine fish with a laterally compressed olive-yellow body which has a large dark ...

'' won a Lakeland Book of the Year Award, and his book '' Jazz Etc'' was longlisted for the

Man 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 ...

in 2003. His 2004 novel, '' Murphy's Favourite Channels'', was a "Novel of the Week" in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. He has also published several other critically acclaimed novels including, ''

Kin Kin usually refers to kinship and family. Kin or KIN may also refer to: Places * Kin empires and dynasties of China, now romanized as ''Jin'' *Kin, Okinawa, a town in Okinawa, Japan * Kin, Pakistan, a village along the Indus in Pakistan * Kin ...

'', '' Reiver Blues'', '' Radio Activity'', ''The Legend of Liz and Joe'' and '' A Gentleman's Relish''. His latest novel The Lawless Book of Love (2018) is a satire on online dating and is available as a Kindle eBook. Murray currently lives in London where he teaches Creative Writing courses (www.writinginkythnos.com). He has been a regular fiction tutor at The

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, and Patricia Cumper is ...

since 1989 and every summer from 1995 to 2007 he led a

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

workshop at Madingley Hall,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Murray also writes a blog, Wild Days in Greece (johnmurraywritinginkythnos.wordpress.com), which he started when he moved to live on the Greek island of Kythnos in 2013. The blog has nearly 500 posts and covers a massive range of subjects, including London, Greece, films, books, TV series, music, recipes and politics. It also features Murray's latest short stories and a 2016 novel Passion For Beginners. He married Annie Murray (née Clements) in 1979, a consultant trainer and specialist in Organisational Transactional Analysis, who died in 2009. He has one daughter Ione, born 1989, a computer programmer who lives in West Yorkshire.

References

External links

Creative Writing courses in Beautiful Kythnos

Wild Days in Greece

Write Words Interview

''John Dory'' review

The Arvon Foundation
1950 births Living people English magazine editors 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists People from Brampton, Carlisle Alumni of University College, Oxford English male novelists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers People from Cleator Moor English male non-fiction writers Writers from Cumbria {{England-novelist-stub