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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 RSL has about 800 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House. The RSL is an independent charity and relies on the support of its Members, Patrons, Fellows and friends to continue its work. History The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) was founded in 1820, with the patronage of George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent", and its first president was Thomas Burgess (bishop, born 1756), Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hare (playwright)
Sir David Rippon Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing ''The Hours'' in 2002, based on the novel by Michael Cunningham, and ''The Reader'' in 2008, based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink. In the West End, he had his greatest success with the plays'' Plenty'' (1978), which he adapted into a 1985 film starring Meryl Streep, ''Racing Demon'' (1990), ''Skylight'' (1997), and ''Amy's View'' (1998). The four plays ran on Broadway in 1982–83, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively, earning Hare three Tony Award nominations for Best Play for the first three and two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best New Play. His other notable projects on stage include ''A Map of the World'', ''Pravda'' (starring Anthony Hopkins at the Royal National Theatre in London), '' Murmuring Judges'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadeem Aslam
Nadeem Aslam FRSL (born 11 July 1966 in Gujranwala, Pakistan) is a British Pakistani novelist. His debut novel, ''Season of the Rainbirds'', won the Betty Trask and the Author's Club First Novel Award. His critically acclaimed second novel '' Maps for Lost Lovers'' won Encore Award and Kiriyama Prize; it was shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award, among others. Colm Tóibín described him as "one of the most exciting and serious British novelists writing now". His most recent book is ''The Golden Legend'' (2017). Early life Nadeem Aslam moved with his family to the UK aged 14 when his father, a Communist, fled President Zia's regime. The family settled in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He later studied biochemistry at the University of Manchester, but left in his third year to become a writer. Career At 13, Aslam published his first short story in Urdu in a Pakistani newspaper. His 1993 debut novel, ''Season of the Rainbirds'', set in rural Pakistan, won the B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010. Early life and education Zadie Smith was born on 25 October 1975 in Willesden to a Afro-Jamaicans, Jamaican mother, Yvonne Bailey, and an English father, Harvey Smith, who was 30 years his wife's senior. At the age of 14, she changed her name from Sadie to Zadie. Smith's mother grew up in Jamaica and emigrated to England in 1969. Smith's parents divorced when she was a teenager. She has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers (one is the rapper and stand-up comedian Doc Brown (rapper), Doc Brown, and the other is the rapper Luc Skyz). As a child, Smith was fond of tap dancing, and in her teenage years, she considered a career in musical theatre. While at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Motion
Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio recordings of poets reading their own work. In 2012, he became President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, succeeding Bill Bryson. Early life Motion was born on 26 October 1952 in London, to (Andrew) Richard Michael Motion (1921-2006),''Essex Clay'', Andrew Motion, Faber and Faber, 2018, dedication page. a brewer at Ind Coope, and (Catherine) Gillian (née Bakewell; 1928–1978). Richard Motion was from a brewing dynasty; his grandfather founded Taylor Walker, but by Richard Motion's time this had been absorbed by Ind Coope. The Motion family were wealthy armigers who lived at Upton House, Banbury, Oxfordshire, and were prominent in the local area; Richard Motion's grandfather Andrew Richard Motion was a Justice of the Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, conservative views. The founding-editor of ''The Salisbury Review'', a conservative political journal, Scruton wrote over Roger Scruton bibliography, 50 books on architecture, art, philosophy, politics, religion, among other topics. Scruton was also Chairman of the Premiership of Boris Johnson, Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission for the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom's government, from 2019 to 2020. His views on classical architecture and beauty are still promoted via his foundation; while his political stances remain influential. His publications include ''The Meaning of Conservatism'' (1980), ''Sexual Desire'' (1986), ''The Aesthetics of Music'' (1997), and ''How to Be a Conservative'' (2014). He was a regula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces. Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: the first was for her 2009 novel ''Wolf Hall'', a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power in the court of Henry VIII, and the second was for its 2012 sequel ''Bring Up the Bodies''. The third installment of the Cromwell trilogy, ''The Mirror & the Light'', was longlisted for the same prize. The trilogy has gone on to sell more than 5 million copies. Early life Hilary Mary Thompson was born on 6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire, the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers, and raised as a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic in the mill village of Had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo (born 28 May 1959) is an English author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. In 2025, Evaristo was selected from among all previous Women's Prize for Fiction winners and nominees as the recipient of the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, a one-off literary honour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to hold the role since it was founded in 1820. Evaristo is a longstanding advocate for the inclusion of writers and artists. In 2024 she founded the RSL Scriptorium Awards, offering struggling UK writers "a place to write" on the Kent coast for up to a month each, in partnership with the Royal Society of Liter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazuo Ishiguro
is a Japanese-born English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded several major literary prizes, including the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five. His first two novels, ''A Pale View of Hills'' and ''An Artist of the Floating World'', were noted for their explorations of Japanese identity and their mournful tone. He thereafter explored other genres, including science fiction and historical fiction. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize four times, winning in 1989 for ''The Remains of the Day'', which was adapted into a The Remains of the Day (film), film of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel ''The Handmaid's Tale.'' Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and "power politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an engineer, and Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell). Her father was Jewish, born in Edinburgh of Lithuanian immigrant parents, and her English mother had been raised Anglican. She was educated at James Gillespie's High School, James Gillespie's School for Girls (1923–35), where she received some education in the Presbyterian faith. In 1934–35 she took a course in "commercial correspondence and précis writing" at Heriot-Watt University, Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store. In 1937 she became engaged to Sidney Oswald Spark, 13 years her senior, whom she had met in Edinburgh. In August of that year, she followed him to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' -logy, duology (''The Jungle Book'', 1894; ''The Second Jungle Book'', 1895), ''Kim (novel), Kim'' (1901), the ''Just So Stories'' (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay (poem), Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958) occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with ''Things Fall Apart'', his '' No Longer at Ease'' (1960) and '' Arrow of God'' (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include '' A Man of the People'' (1966) and '' Anthills of the Savannah'' (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization. Born in Ogidi, Colonial Nigeria, Achebe's childhood was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and colonial Christianity. He excelled in school and attended what is now the University of Ibadan, where he became fiercely critical of how Western literature depicted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
