Tim Lott (born 23 January 1956) is a British author. He worked as a music journalist and ran a magazine publishing business, launching '' Flexipop'' magazine in 1980 with ex-''Record Mirror'' journalist Barry Cain.

Early life and education

In 1956, Lott was born in

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divid ...

, West

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 ...

. He graduated with a degree in history and politics from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

in 1986, at the age of 30.

Career

In the late 1980s, Lott briefly worked as the editor of ''City Limits'', a magazine based in London. Lott was a TV producer and a Sunday magazine featured writer. In 1996, Lott's first book, a memoir, ''The Scent of Dried Roses'', was published and won the

PEN/Ackerley Prize PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receive ...

for autobiography. It is now published as a Penguin Modern Classic. His next work, and first novel, ''White City Blue'', was published in 1999 and won that year's Whitbread Award for Best First Novel. He was shortlisted in the Best Novel category of the

2002 Whitbread Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, th ...

and the Encore Awards for best second novel for his work ''Rumours of a Hurricane''. He has since published ''The Love Secrets of Don Juan'', ''The Seymour Tapes'' and ''Fearless'', a young adult novel for Walker Books, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. He has also featured prominently in the literary magazine ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'', appearing in its 21st anniversary edition as having authored one of the most significant pieces published in the previous 21 years. His most recent book is ''When We Were Rich'' (Scribner). His authored documentary on the class system, ''The New Middle Classes'', was broadcast on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in 2008. He is a prolific travel journalist, and an occasional op-ed writer for the ''Independent on Sunday''. He teaches the Writing a Novel six-month course at the Faber Academy in London.

Personal life

Lott lives in

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, a ...

, North West London. Lott has four children, all daughters.

References

External links

Official website, archived 5 May 2013''Guardian'' newspaper articles by Tim Lott''Independent'' newspaper articles by Tim Lott''Aeon'' magazine articles by Tim Lott"Simpatico"
''

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, wh ...

'', 1 February 2009 (online text) * 1956 births Alumni of the London School of Economics British republicans 21st-century English novelists Living people People from Southall English male novelists British social commentators 21st-century English male writers {{England-novelist-stub