Timothy Peter Mo (born 30December 1950) is a British Asian novelist. Born to a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

mother and a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10, when he moved to Britain. Educated at

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, Day school, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' ...

and

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, Mo worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist. His works have won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award given annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the pre ...

, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction), and three of his novels were shortlisted for the

Booker Prize for Fiction 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 ...

. Mo was also the recipient of the 1992 E. M. Forster Award. His novel ''An Insular Possession'' (1986) was among the contenders in ''The Telegraph'''s list of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. In the early 1990s Mo became increasingly mistrustful of his publishers and increasingly outspoken about the publishing industry in general. Since 1994 when he rejected a £125,000 advance from

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

for his next novel, he has self-published his books under the label "Paddleless Press". His first novel to be self-published was ''Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard''.

Background

Mo has been described as a

British Asian British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British people of Asian people, Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with a population of 5.76 million people or 8.6 ...

author.

Novels

*'' The Monkey King'' (1978) *'' Sour Sweet'' (1982), filmed as '' Soursweet'' in 1988 *'' An Insular Possession'' (1986) *'' The Redundancy of Courage'' (1991) *'' Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard'' (1995) *'' Renegade or Halo2'' (2000) *'' Pure'' (2012)

Awards

* 1979: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for ''The Monkey King'' * 1982:

(shortlist) for ''Sour Sweet'' * 1982:

for ''Sour Sweet'' * 1986:

(shortlist) for ''An Insular Possession'' * 1991:

(shortlist) for ''The Redundancy of Courage'' * 1992: E. M. Forster Award * 1999: James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) for ''Renegade or Halo2''

References

External links

* 1950 births Living people 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British novelists Alumni of St John's College, Oxford British Asian writers British male novelists British people of Hong Kong descent English people of Hong Kong descent Hong Kong emigrants to England James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients People educated at Mill Hill School {{UK-novelist-stub