John Murray (born 1950,

Flimby Flimby is an English coastal village and former civil parish in the Allerdale district in Cumbria. It was Historic counties of England, historically in Cumberland. It currently forms part of the parish of Maryport and the Flimby ward of Allerdal ...

, Cumberland) is an English

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

known for writing satirical novels on a range of subjects. He read Sanskrit at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

. In 1984 he founded the fiction magazine '' Panurge'', which he edited with fellow author David Almond until 1996. Panurge Publishing published

Julia Darling Julia Rose Darling (21 August 1956 – 13 April 2005) was an English novelist, poet and dramatist. Early life and education Darling was born in 1956 in 8 College Street, Winchester—the house Jane Austen died in. Her parents were John Ramsay ...

's debut collection of short stories, ''Bloodlines'' in 1995. Murray's first novel, ''Samarkand'', was published in 1985 (it was broadcast on BBC Radio 3)) and in 1988 he received the Dylan Thomas Award for 2 stories out of his collection, '' Pleasure''. In 2002 his novel ''

John Dory John Dory, St Pierre or Peter's fish, refers to fish of the genus ''Zeus'', especially ''Zeus faber'', of widespread distribution. It is an edible demersal coastal marine fish with a laterally compressed olive-yellow body which has a large dark ...

'' won a Lakeland Book of the Year Award, and his book '' Jazz Etc'' was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. His 2004 novel, '' Murphy's Favourite Channels'', was a "Novel of the Week" in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. He has also published several other critically acclaimed novels including, ''

Kin __NOTOC__ Kin usually refers to kinship and family. Kin or KIN may also refer to: Culture and religion *Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human *Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement * Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...

'', '' Reiver Blues'', '' Radio Activity'', ''The Legend of Liz and Joe'' and '' A Gentleman's Relish''. His latest novel The Lawless Book of Love (2018) is a satire on online dating and is available as a Kindle eBook. Murray currently lives in London where he teaches Creative Writing courses (www.writinginkythnos.com). He has been a regular fiction tutor at The

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Cumper is Cha ...

since 1989 and every summer from 1995-2007 he led a

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

workshop at

Madingley Hall Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was kno ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. Murray also writes a blog, Wild Days in Greece (johnmurraywritinginkythnos.wordpress.com), which he started when he moved to live on the Greek island of Kythnos in 2013. The blog has nearly 500 posts and covers a massive range of subjects, including London, Greece, films, books, TV series, music, recipes and politics. It also features Murray's latest short stories and a 2016 novel Passion For Beginners. He married Annie Murray (nee Clements) in 1979, a consultant trainer and specialist in Organisational Transactional Analysis, who died in 2009. He has one daughter Ione, born 1989, a computer programmer who lives in West Yorkshire.

References

External links

Creative Writing courses in Beautiful Kythnos

Wild Days in Greece

Write Words Interview

''John Dory'' review

The Arvon Foundation
1950 births Living people English magazine editors 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists People from Brampton, Carlisle Alumni of University College, Oxford English male novelists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers People from Cleator Moor English male non-fiction writers {{England-novelist-stub