William Sutcliffe (born 9 March 1971) is a British

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 aspire to ...

. He has written many acclaimed novels, spanning genres from

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

YA fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

. His 2008 book ''Whatever Makes You Happy'' has been adapted into a 2019 film by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

, under the title ''

Otherhood ''Otherhood'' is a 2019 American comedy film, directed by Cindy Chupack, from a screenplay by Chupack and Mark Andrus. It is based upon the 2008 novel ''Whatever Makes You Happy'' by William Sutcliffe, and follows three suburban mothers who show ...

''.

Novels

Sutcliffe's novels could be categorised as humorous. '' New Boy'' has much authentic material in it that refers to actual incidents from his life at Haberdashers', although it would be going too far to call it "autobiographical". His next novel concerns a 10-year-old growing up in a North London suburb with his family, and the plot centres on the complex knot of his childhood friendships. Sutcliffe's 2008 book ''Whatever Makes You Happy'' (

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

) is about interfering mothers of men who refuse to grow up. This has recently been adapted into a film by

, under the new title ''

''. His first young adult novel, '' The Wall'' (

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

), tells of a boy in Israel's

Occupied Territories Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...

whose discovery of a tunnel underneath the barrier wall sets off a spiralling chain of events after he goes under and is saved from his attackers by a girl on the other side. Following on from the success of his first YA novel, Sutcliffe wrote his second, ''Concentr8'', in (

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

). In 2009, he donated the short story ''Sandcastles: A Negotiation'' to Oxfam's '

Ox-Tales Ox-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best-known authors. All donated their stories to Oxfam. The books and stories are loosely based on the four elements: Earth, Fire, Air and Water. The Ox-Tales books we ...

' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Sutcliffe's story was published in the 'Fire' collection. More recently, Sutcliffe has been writing more humorous books for a younger audience, with his ''Circus of Thieves'' trilogy. He has also written a humorous novel for teenagers, ''The Gifted, the Talented and Me''. The book had an extremely good reception, gaining positive reviews in many newspapers.

Personal life

Sutcliffe was born in 1971, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, where he read English literature. He later worked as a TV researcher before becoming a novelist. He now lives in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

with his wife the novelist

Maggie O'Farrell Maggie O'Farrell, RSL (born 27 May 1972), is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Her acclaimed first novel, ''After You'd Gone'', won the Betty Trask Award, and a later one, '' The Hand That First Held Mine'', the 2010 Costa Novel Award. She has ...

, and their three children.

Bibliography

Books for Adults * '' New Boy'' (1996) * ''Are You Experienced?'' (1997) * ''The Love Hexagon'' (2000) * ''Whatever Makes You Happy'' (2008) Books for Adults and Young Adults * ''Bad Influence'' (2004) * ''The Wall'' (2013) * ''Concentr8'' (2015) * ''We See Everything'' (2017) * ''The Gifted, Talented and Me'' (2019) Books for Younger Readers * ''Circus of Thieves and the Raffle of Doom'' (2014) * ''Circus of Thieves on the Rampage'' (2015) * ''Circus of Thieves and the Comeback Caper'' (2016)

References

External links

William Sutcliffe's Top 10 relationship novels
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''
William Sutcliffe's Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutcliffe, William 1971 births People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School English Jews British Jewish writers Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists Living people British male novelists 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers

Novels

Personal life

Bibliography

See also

References

External links