Alex Preston (born 1979) is an English author and journalist.

Early life and education

Preston was born on 18 January 1979, in the seaside town of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

. He attended

Sompting Abbotts Preparatory School Sompting Abbotts Preparatory School is a historic West Sussex independent school in Sompting, near Worthing and Steyning. It educates children of both sexes aged 2 to 13. The school sits in parkland of 30 acres, which includes woodland, chalk gra ...

and then received a scholarship to

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

boarding school. Preston graduated from

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The col ...

and went on to receive his PhD in English Literature from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Career

Preston was working as an investment banker in the early 2000s when the banking market collapsed and he turned to teaching and writing. Preston's first novel, '' This Bleeding City'', was published by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

in March 2010. The novel won the

Spear's ''Spear's'' (formerly known as ''Spear's WMS'' or ''Spear's Wealth Management Survey''), founded in 2006 by William Cash, is a bimonthly British magazine for high-net-worth individuals and those in the financial service industries. It has been c ...

Best First Novel Prize, the

Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place in the last three weeks of August every year in Charlotte Square in the centre of Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. Billed as ''The largest festival of its k ...

Readers' First Book Award, and was chosen as one of

Waterstone's Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...

New Voices 2010. It has been translated into twelve languages. His second novel, ''The Revelations'', was published in February 2012, while his third, ''In Love and War'', was featured on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. He is also the co-author of ''As Kingfishers Catch Fire'', a memoir and anthology of literature about British birds. Preston reviews books for a number of national newspapers and magazines and was a regular panelist on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

's '' The Review Show''. He is an English lecturer at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

Personal life

Alex Preston is the brother of Samuel Preston, the former singer of

The Ordinary Boys The Ordinary Boys are an English indie rock band from Worthing, West Sussex. Originally a hardcore outfit named Next in Line, they are influenced by punk rock and Britpop music, as well as the bands the Clash, the Specials, the Jam, the Kink ...

and ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Big Brother VIP'', is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, the housemates or houseguest ...

'' contestant. He is the grandson of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

English professor and literary critic Samuel Hynes. Preston plays

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

for the Authors Cricket Club and contributed a chapter to the team's book ''The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon''. He became notable as player-umpire for asking of fellow novelist Richard Beard, "Do you think you were out?" in response to a bellowed LBW appeal. For this he received the "Decision of the Season" award at their annual dinner. He lives in

Kent, England Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...

with his wife and two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Alex 1979 births Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford English writers English male journalists Living people People educated at Lancing College 21st-century British writers 21st-century English male writers