Lindsay Clarke (born 1939,

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

) is a British novelist. He was educated at

Heath Grammar School The Crossley Heath School is an 11–18 mixed, grammar school and sixth form with academy status in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1985 following the amalgamation of Heath Grammar School and Crossley and Porter Schoo ...

in Halifax and at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

. The landscape of hills, moors and crags around Halifax informed the growth of his imagination, while King's refined his sensibility and sharpened his intellect. His debut novel, ''Sunday Whiteman'', was shortlisted for the David Higham First Novel Award, and his second novel ''

The Chymical Wedding ''The Chymical Wedding'' is a 1989 novel by Lindsay Clarke about the intertwined lives of six people in two different eras. Inspired by the life of Mary Anne Atwood, the book includes themes of alchemy, the occult, fate, passion, and obsession ...

'', partly inspired by the life of

Mary Anne Atwood Mary Anne Atwood (née South) (1817 – 1910) was an English writer on hermeticism and spiritual alchemy. Life Atwood was born in Dieppe, France but grew up in Gosport, Hampshire. Her father, Thomas South, was a researcher into the history of ...

, won the

Whitbread Prize 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, then ...

in 1989. Clarke's most recent novel is ''The Water Theatre'' (published in September 2010 b
Alma Books
. In her review of the novel in ''The Times'' Antonia Senior said "There is nothing small about this book. It is huge in scope, in energy, in heart...It is difficult to remember a recent book that is at once so beautiful and yet so thought provoking." ''The Water Theatre'' was selected as a winner of the inaugural Fiction Uncovered competition in 2011 and was included among ''The Timess Books of the Year. In 2012 ''The Water Theatre'' was chosen as the inaugural e-book publication of ''The New York Review of Books'' under their NYRB Lit imprint. Before becoming a writer, Lindsay's career in education took him to Akim-Oda, Ghana, where he worked as Senior Master of a co-educational boarding school. He has also worked in the United States. He lectures in creative writing at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

, is a Creative Consultant t
The Pushkin Trust
in Northern Ireland, and teaches writing workshops in Frome, London and 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 Ch ...

. He has had four radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and a number of his articles and reviews have been published in ''Resurgence'' and ''The London Magazine.'' Lindsay has one daughter from his first marriage. In 2014 he was awarded a Civil List Pension "in recognition of services to literature." Clarke passionately believes in the power of the creative imagination and writes about imagination, consciousness and mythology i
his blog

Publications

Troy Quartet

# ''A Prince of Troy'' (2019) # ''The War at Troy'' (2004), # ''The Spoils of Troy'' (2019) # ''The Return from Troy'' (2005),

Novels

*''Sunday Whiteman'' (1987) *''

'' (1989) *''Alice's Masque'' (1994) *''Parzival and the Stone from Heaven'' (2001), *''The Water Theatre'' (2010)

Poetry

*''Stoker'' (2006), Phoenix Poetry Pamphlet *''A Dance with Hermes'' (2016),

Pamphlet

*''Imagining Otherwise'' (2004), GreenSpirit Pamphlet No. 6

Anthologies edited

*''Essential Celtic Mythology'' (1997), . Reprinted as ''Lindsay Clarke's Traditional Celtic Stories'' (1999), . *''The Gist: A Celebration of the Imagination'' (2012), (Editor) *''Green Man Dreaming: Reflections on Imagination, Myth, and Memory'' (2018),

References

* Susan Rowland, "Writing About War: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing and the Troy Novels of Lindsay Clarke" in ''Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies'' 3.1, 2007 * Mark F Lund, "Lindsay Clarke and A.S.Byatt: The Novel on the Threshold of Romance" in ''Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal'' NS2, Vol.1, 1993

External links

Lindsay Clarke's official websiteClarke's representation at United Agents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Lindsay 1939 births Living people People from Halifax, West Yorkshire 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists Academics of Cardiff University Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British male novelists English historical novelists People educated at Heath Grammar School Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers