Edward Rutherfurd is a pen name for Francis Edward Wintle (born in 1948). He is best known as a writer of epic historical novels that span long periods of history but are set in particular places. His

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, '' Sarum'', set the pattern for his work with a ten-thousand-year storyline.

Biography

Rutherfurd attended the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and

Stanford Business School The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

, where he earned a

Sloan fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

. After graduating he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. He abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983 and returned to his childhood home to write '' Sarum'', a historical novel with a ten-thousand year story, set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge and

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

. ''Sarum'' was published in 1987 and became an instant international best-seller, remaining for 23 weeks on the

New York Times Bestseller List ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

. Since then he produced seven more New York Times best-sellers: '' Russka'', a novel of Russia; ''

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

''; '' The Forest'', set in England's

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

which lies close by Sarum; two novels, '' Dublin: Foundation'' (''The Princes of Ireland'') and '' Ireland: Awakening'' (''The Rebels of Ireland''), which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century; '' New York''; ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

;'' and ''China.'' His books have sold more than fifteen million copies and been translated into twenty languages. Rutherfurd settled near

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Ireland in the early 1990s, but currently divides his time between Europe and North America. ''New York: The Novel'', won the Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction in 2009 and was awarded the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, by the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, in 2011. In 2015 Edward Rutherfurd was the recipient of the City of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

's International Historical Novel Honor Award "for his body of work in the field of the historical novel."

Style

Rutherfurd invents four to six fictional families and tells the stories of their descendants. Using this framework, he chronicles the history of a place, often from the beginning of civilisation to modern times – a kind of historical fiction inspired by the work of

James Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and ...

. Rutherfurd's novels are generally at least 500 pages in length and sometimes more than 1,000. Divided into a number of parts, each chapter represents a different era in the place where the novel is set. There is usually an extensive family tree in the introduction, with each generational line matching the corresponding chapters.

Works

*'' Sarum'' (1987) latterly titled ''Sarum: the Novel of England'' *'' Russka'' (1991) sometimes titled ''Russka: the Novel of Russia'' *''

'' (1997) *'' The Forest'' (2000) *'' Dublin: Foundation'' (2004) titled ''The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga'' in North America *'' Ireland: Awakening'' (2006) titled ''The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga'' in North America *'' New York'' (September 2009) *''

'' (April 2013) sometimes titled ''Paris: A Novel'' *'' China'' (May 2021)

References

External links

* , interview, ''ContraCostaTimes.com'' 9 May 2004
Edward Rutherfurd's Official site

Edward Rutherfurd's Official Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherfurd, Edward 1948 births 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British novelists British male novelists Living people People from Salisbury Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages