Rupert Thomson,

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

(born 5 November 1955) is an English writer. He is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels and an award-winning memoir. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, New York, Sydney, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Rome. In 2010, after several years in Barcelona, he moved back to London. He has contributed to the Financial Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, Granta and the Independent.

Biography and literary career

Youth and education

Rupert Thomson was born in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, East Sussex, on November 5, 1955, to Rodney Farquhar-Thomson, a War Disability Pensioner, and Wendy Gausden, a nurse. His mother died playing tennis when he was eight. From the age of ten, he attended public school

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

. While at Christ's Hospital, he began to write poetry. His early influences were Thomas Hardy and TS Eliot. When he was fifteen, he rode his bicycle 150 miles on a "pilgrimage" to Hardy country. He was also influenced by a series called Penguin Modern European Poets – in particular, Montale,

Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant ...

, Yevtushenko, Pavese, and

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume tit ...

. In 1972 he was awarded an Exhibition to

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

to study Medieval History and Political Philosophy. While at Cambridge University, he published poems in several small magazines, including The Windless Orchard. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1976.

Early travels (1976–1977)

After leaving university, Thomson flew to New York. He has stated that there were cultural reasons behind choosing America as a destination, since it was linked with artists as diverse as

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

and

Alexander Trocchi Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist. Early life and career Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie ...

Thomson spent six weeks living in Hell's Kitchen with a 63-year-old alcoholic and his family. Afterwards, he travelled throughout the United States, principally by Greyhound bus. He also visited Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies, and travelled through Mexico. Thomson returned to Eastbourne in November of that year and worked in the Birds Eye factory. In January 1977 he left again – this time for Athens. Once in Athens, Thomson rented a flat on Iliados Street and made a living by teaching English. He began work on a novel. He met WH Auden's secretary,

Alan Ansen Alan Ansen (January 23, 1922 – November 12, 2006) was an American poet, playwright, and associate of Beat Generation writers. He was a widely read scholar who knew many languages. Ansen grew up on Long Island and was educated at Harvard. He wo ...

, who read his poetry and gave him encouragement. Thomson completed a 160-page first draft of a novel, but it was never finished.

Working in London (1978–1982)

In 1978 Thomson moved to London and found a job as a copywriter. He was employed by Robin Wight's Euro Advertising. Later, he worked for FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding). While working in advertising, he kept notebooks and wrote 50-word short stories. After four years in advertising, he gave up his job, moved a friend into his South London council flat, and set off for Italy in his Vauxhall Viva. From then onwards, he devoted himself to writing.

Seeing the world (1982–2000)

In November 1982, Thomson took a job as winter caretaker of a converted Tuscan farmhouse that belonged to

Miriam Margolyes Miriam Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Marti ...

. In the Italian countryside that winter, he wrote the first draft of a book that would become Dreams of Leaving:

There was no heating in the house, and I worked in the kitchen, huddled against a free-standing gas stove. I typed on sheets of yellow foolscap, using a maroon Olympia portable I had inherited from my last agency. I was disciplined about the hours I put in: I would start at three in the afternoon and finish at one in the morning. The routine felt natural, comfortable, even seductive.

The following year, he moved to West Berlin, where he rented an apartment on Sanderstrasse in

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

and continued to work on the novel he had started in Italy. He was on the point of taking up a job as a cleaner in the Olympiastadion when his father died. He returned to

in February 1984. The seven months Thomson spent with his brothers in the house where he grew up would provide the inspiration for his award-winning 2010 memoir, This Party's Got to Stop. At the end of the year he moved to New York, where he worked at the

Strand Bookstore The Strand Bookstore is an independent bookstore located at 828 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, at the corner of East 12th Street (Manhattan), 12th Street in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, tw ...

, running the outdoor bookstall in Bryant Park In the summer of 1985 Thomson moved to Japan, inspired by his grandfather who lived there for more than thirty years. He spent several months in Tokyo, redrafting his first novel. By 1986, he was back in London. Dreams of Leaving was picked up by Liz Calder and published by

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

in June 1987. It prompted the New Statesman to say: "When someone writes as well as Thomson does, it's a wonder other people bother", while Nicholas Lezard of the Guardian called it "one of the most haunting, resonant and clever parables about England you'll ever read". One of Thomson's fan letters came from Budgie, the drummer of Souxsie and the Banshees. Three months after publication, Thomson flew to Sydney. While there, he received a phone-call from a film production company in Los Angeles, optioning Dreams of Leaving. He spent two summers in West Hollywood, writing an adaptation of his novel. The film was never made, but he was paid the sum of $50,000 for the screenplay, which financed his second novel, The Five Gates of Hell. This was followed by four more novels – Air and Fire (1993), The Insult (1996), Soft (1998) and

The Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Christian Bible. Written in Greek, its title is derived from the first w ...

(1999). In 1999, he and his girlfriend, Katharine Norbury, began trying to conceive via

in vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an ovum, egg is combined with spermatozoon, sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the Ovulation cycle, ovulatory process, then removing ...

. Their daughter, Eva Rae, was born in 2000.

Up north (2000–2004)

In the spring of 2000, Thomson moved to a village in Cheshire to be close to his father-in-law, who was dying of cancer. While up north, Thomson wrote in a caravan, which he towed into an orchard next to the cottage where he was living. He was working on the book that would become Divided Kingdom. Following a review in the New York Times, Thomson received more than a dozen faxes from film-makers and film producers all over the world, including

William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...

, wanting to option The Book of Revelation . He sold the rights to Australian writer/director,

Ana Kokkinos Ana Kokkinos is an Australian film and television director and screenwriter of Greek descent. She is known for her breakthrough feature film ''Head On (1998 film), Head On'' (1998), and has directed television shows such as ''The Secret Life o ...

. The film of

was released in 2006.

The Barcelona Years (2004–2010)

In 2004, Thomson moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, renting a house in

Sarrià Sarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, Galicia, Spain. Sarria or Sarrià may also refer to: *Sarrià, Barcelona, a neighbourhood in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain **Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, the Barcelona district containing Sarrià **Sarrià ...

. A year later, he married his long-term girlfriend, Katharine Norbury, in Las Vegas. While in Barcelona, he published two novels,

Divided Kingdom ''Divided Kingdom'' is a novel by British author Rupert Thomson. It was first published in Britain by Bloomsbury in April 2005 and then in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf in June 2005. Introduction The former United Kingdom has been div ...

(2005) and Death of a Murderer (2007), which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year. He also ventured into non-fiction for the first time, with memoir This Party's Got to Stop (2010). “An extraordinary memoir,” wrote

Hisham Matar Hisham Matar (; born 1970) is an American-born British-Libyan novelist, essayist, and memoirist. His debut novel '' In the Country of Men'' was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and his memoir of the search for his father, '' The Retur ...

, “one of the best I have read in recent years”, while

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

thought it was “very funny”, and Robert Macfarlane called it “completely brilliant, spikily funny, very dark, and beautifully constructed”. A Book of the Year in the Independent, the Guardian, Time Out, the New Statesman, and the Telegraph, Thomson's memoir went on to win the Writers’ Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Return to London (2010)

In 2010 the financial crash forced Thomson and his family to return to London. Three years later, in 2013, David Bowie selected The Insult as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time. Thomson has stated that being chosen by Bowie felt like an affirmation:

I'm not a writer who has had much luck with prizes, but as Lionel Shriver said to me the other day, when we were talking about not being celebrated: "That Bowie accolade, though. No one can take that away from you." She paused. "You can take that to your grave."

That year, Thomson's ninth novel, Secrecy, received overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Boyd Tonkin Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL is an English writer, journalist and literary critic. He was the literary editor of ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 2013. A long-time proponent of foreign-language literature, he is the author of ''The 100 Best No ...

, in the Independent, wrote: "Thomson has merged the pulse and pace of a thumping narrative heartbeat with an eerie and visionary gift for mystery, puzzle, and surprise…Scene after scene trembles with breath-stopping tension on the edge of bliss or dread", while

Stephanie Merritt Stephanie Jane Merritt (born 1974 in Surrey) is an English literary critic and writer who has contributed to publications including ''The Times'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', the ''New Statesman'', ''New Humanist'' and ''Die Welt''. She was Deputy ...

called Thomson "a writer of exceptional skill, though his work has perhaps not been as widely celebrated as it deserves" and added "his finest novel to date: exquisitely crafted, and with the power to possess and unsettle the reader in equal measure". Thomson's next novel, Katherine Carlyle (2015), was feted by writers and artists as diverse as

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann Shriver; May 18, 1957) is an American author and journalist. Her novel '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005. Early life and education Shriver was born Margaret Ann Shriver, ...

Samantha Morton Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress. She is known for her work in independent film with dark and tragic themes, particularly in period dramas. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship ...

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ''Question 7'', ...

Deborah Moggach Deborah Moggach (née Hough; born 28 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. She has written nineteen novels, including '' The Ex-Wives'' (1993), ''Tulip Fever'' (1999; made into the 2017 film of the same name), ''These Foolish T ...

Anne Enright Anne Teresa Enright (born 11 October 1962) is an Irish writer. The first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015–2018) and winner of the Man Booker Prize (2007), she has published eight novels, many short stories, and a non-fiction work called ''Mak ...

James Salter James Arnold Horowitz (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015), better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air F ...

, and

KT Tunstall Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on ''Later... with Jools Holland'', and h ...

. "Katherine Carlyle is the strongest and most original novel I have read in a long time,"

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The first volume, ''Northern Lights'' (1995), won the Carnegie Medal

wrote. "It's a masterpiece." In 2016, Thomson's short story, "To William Burroughs, from His Wife", was shortlisted for the Costa Short Story of the Year Award. Katherine Carlyle was followed by Never Anyone but You (2018), about the lives of

Claude Cahun Claude Cahun (, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portra ...

and Marcel Moore. It was described by

Sarah Waters Sarah Ann Waters (born 21 July 1966) is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as '' Tipping the Velvet'' and '' Fingersmith''. Life and education Early life Sara ...

as “a novel of tremendous beauty…an astonishing accomplishment”, and by

Monica Ali Monica Ali (; born 20 October 1967) is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English descent. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by ''Granta'' based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut novel, ''Brick L ...

as “nail-bitingly tense and unbearably moving”. The novel was a Best Books of the Year choice in the Guardian, the Observer, and the Sydney Morning Herald, and was shortlisted for the American Library of Paris Book Award. In 2020, at the suggestion of his publisher, Thomson published a new novel, NVK, under the pseudonym of Temple Drake, a name he borrowed from a character in William Faulkner's novel, Sanctuary. NVK was an Amazon Best of the Month Pick, and a Top 10 Best Debut Novels of the Fall Pick from Apple. Thomson followed NVK with Barcelona Dreaming, which was published in 2021. Barcelona Dreaming received starred reviews in both

Kirkus ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, non ...

and Publishers Weekly, and was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Fiction with a Sense of Place Award. Among the book's many admirers are

Irenosen Okojie Irenosen Iseghohi Okojie FRSL is a Nigerian-born novelist and short-story writer working in London, England. Her stories incorporate speculative elements and also make use of her West African heritage. Her first novel, '' Butterfly Fish'' won ...

Colm Toibin Colm (; ) is a masculine given name of Irish origin. It is not an Irish version of ''Colin'', but like '' Callum'' and ''Malcolm'' derives from a Gaelic variation on ''columba'', the Latin word for "dove". The reason for the name's use for ov ...

, Andrea Wulf,

Victoria Hislop Victoria Hislop (''née'' Hamson; born 1959) is an English author. Early life Born in Bromley, Kent, she was raised in Tonbridge and attended Tonbridge Grammar School. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and worked in publishing ...

, Maya C. Popa,

DBC Pierre Peter Warren Finlay (born in 1961), also known as DBC Pierre, is an Australian author who wrote the novel '' Vernon God Little''. Pierre was born in South Australia, and largely raised in Mexico. He has resided in the Republic of Ireland and ...

Kitty Aldridge Kitty Aldridge (born 9 May 1962) is a British actress and writer. Life and career Aldridge was born in Bahrain. After training as an actress at the Drama Centre London, Aldridge went on to work in film, theatre and television as an actress for ...

, and

Gwendoline Riley Gwendoline Riley (born 19 February 1979) is a British writer. Early life and education Riley was born in London, England, in 1979. She attended Manchester Metropolitan University. Career Riley's first novel, ''Cold Water'', was named one of ...

. Thomson has this to say about the creative process:

It's a headlong plunge into the unknown each time, with no framework, no plan, no end in sight…I'm trying to pin down some kind of psychological truth. I'm after an undertow – the flow of something fresh and unexpected. There's no need to be afraid, or even wary. No one will ever see my first attempt. I have a number of metaphors for how this process feels. I'm a sculptor with a piece of marble. I'm a driver on a motorway at night who turns his headlights off. I'm an actor, but without an audience. I chip away at something formless. I can't seem to remember any of my lines. I take wrong turnings, scenic routes. I get lost. I crash. But somehow I make progress. The marble gradually resolves itself into a shape. My characters slowly come alive. When day dawns and the road appears, I'm never where I thought I would be. The journey is always unpredictable. There is always risk, exhilaration, mystery, and panic. There is also, hopefully, the discovery of something that feels both recognisable and new.

He has never won any prizes for his fiction, and is often referred to by literary critics as having been criminally overlooked.

Works

Novels

* 1987 – Dreams of Leaving * 1991 – The Five Gates of Hell * 1993 – Air and Fire * 1996 – The Insult * 1998 – Soft * 1999 –

* 2005 –

* 2007 – Death of a Murderer * 2013 – Secrecy * 2015 – Katherine Carlyle * 2018 – Never Anyone but You * 2020 – NVK (as Temple Drake) * 2021 – Barcelona Dreaming * 2023 - Dartmouth Park (UK title: How to Make a Bomb)

Memoir

*2010 – This Party's Got to Stop

Short stories

* 1988 – Look, The Monkey's Laughing * 1989 – Other Things * 2014 – To William Burroughs, from his Wife

Essays and articles

* 2009 �
The Lost Boy
* 2009 �
Call Me by My Proper Name (Granta 107)
* 2010 �
Park Life (Granta 110)
* 2011 �
Truman Capote: an introduction to In Cold Blood
* 2013 �
A life in writing by Nicholas Wroe
* 2013 �
“Fugitive Pieces”: Rupert Thomson on Gaetano Guilio Zumbo
* 2014 �
Patrick Modiano: an appreciation of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
- * 2015 �
“In the Wilds of Industrial Russia for Research I Will Not Use”: Rupert Thomson on researching Katherine Carlyle
* 2015 �
James Salter: Write or Perish
* 2015 �
Rupert Thomson: “My Fear of Becoming a Father”
* 2015 �

* 2016 �
Rupert Thomson: On trauma, death, and the power of fiction versus non-fiction (Part One)
* 2016 �
Rupert Thomson discusses his latest novel, Katherine Carlyle (Part Two)
* 2018 �
David Bowie: How my novel ended up on Bowie's Must-Read list
* 2019 �
Rupert Thomson: Books that made me
* 2020 �
Flannery O'Connor: I even mis-spell intellectual
* 2020 �
Rupert Thomson: Novels about Women on Their Own
* 2021 �
“On loving – and leaving – Barcelona”: Rupert Thomson on the writing of Barcelona Dreaming

Bibliography

Rupert Thomson – Critical Essays: foreword by Rupert Thomson
edited by Rebecca Pohl and Christoper Vardy

Awards and distinctions

* Air and Fire: Shortlisted for the 1994 Writer's Guild Novel of the Year * The Insult: Shortlisted for the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize and chosen by David Bowie as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time * Death of a Murderer: Shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel of the Year * This Party's Got to Stop: Winner of the 2010 Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year * Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015 * To Williams Burroughs, from his Wife: Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Short Story of the Year * Never Anyone but You: Shortlisted for the 2018 American Library in Paris Book Award * Barcelona Dreaming: Shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Fiction with a Sense of Place Award

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Rupert 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists Living people People educated at Christ's Hospital 1955 births Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge People from Eastbourne English male novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 20th-century English male writers 21st-century British male writers Writers from Sussex