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Peter Warren Finlay (born in 1961), also known as DBC Pierre, is an Australian author who wrote the novel ''
Vernon God Little ''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play. Plot synopsis The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...
''. Pierre was born in
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, and largely raised in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. He has resided in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
and now, according to an August 2020 interview 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 ...
'', lives in
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
.. Pierre was awarded the 2003
Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
for ''Vernon God Little'', his first novel, becoming the third Australian-born author to be so honoured. Upon winning the Whitbread First Novel Award in
2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
he became the first writer to receive a Man Booker and a Whitbread for the same book. The book also won the Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman Prize for comic literature at the
Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...
in 2003, and earned the author a
James Joyce Award The James Joyce Award, also known as the Honorary Fellowship of the Society, is an award given by the Literary and Historical Society (L&H) of University College Dublin (UCD) for those who have achieved outstanding success in their given field; r ...
from the Literary and Historical Society of
University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
.


Early life

Born in
Old Reynella, South Australia Old Reynella is a metropolitan suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located 20 km south of the Adelaide city centre in the north of the City of Onkaparinga. The suburb is named after John Reynell, a pioneering South Australian winem ...
, where his father was lecturing in
genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
at the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
, Pierre had, by the age of two, already spent time in the United States, the South Pacific and Great Britain. He was then raised from early childhood into his 20s in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
's community of
Jardines del Pedregal Jardines del Pedregal ( en, Rocky Gardens) or simply El Pedregal (full name: El Pedregal de San Angel) is an upscale residential '' colonia'' (neighborhood) in southern Mexico City hosting some of the richest families of Mexico. It is also known as ...
, and attended
Edron Academy The Edron Academy (''El Colegio Británico'') A.C. is a non-profit school in Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City. It was founded in 1963 by Edward Foulkes, a Welshman who worked in Mexico in the publishing business and as a teacher for the British C ...
. Pierre was taken to revisit his home by
Alan Yentob Alan Yentob (born 11 March 1947) is a BBC presenter and retired British television executive. He stepped down as Creative Director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its collap ...
for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series ''
Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...
'' in 2004. He recalls, in a ''Guardian'' article of 1 September 2004, he would later return to Durham most years, usually around the second week in July, to see the
Durham Miners Gala The Durham Miners' Gala, founded by Pete Doherty, is a large annual gathering and labour festival held on the second Saturday in July in the city of Durham, England. It is associated with the coal mining heritage (and particularly that of miner ...
. Aged seven, he fell ill with
hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...
and had to spend a year in bed. After he recovered, his parents were faced with the choice of keeping him a year behind in school, or letting him stay in his class and just catch up. They chose the latter. Pierre sees this as the moment "when all the trouble began... " as it meant his falling out with his peers. His father, once decorated as a
Lancaster Bomber The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling ...
pilot in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, by then a scientific partner to
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
winner Norman E. Borlaug, fell ill when Pierre was sixteen, and died three years later.


Middle years

Pierre's permanent residency in Mexico ended at
Reynosa Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico. It is also the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAllen Metr ...
on the United States-Mexican border in the middle of the night when he claims he was stopped trying to import a 6-litre sports car. He claims he intended to drive through the
Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...
to Mexico City, but Mexico at the time had a protectionist auto industry, making foreign vehicle imports illegal to all but tourists. Pierre succeeded in crossing with the car but found his papers cancelled by the time he reached Mexico City some 18 hours later. The border crossing at Reynosa is described and celebrated in Pierre's novel
Vernon God Little ''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play. Plot synopsis The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...
, as is the journey by road from the border. Pierre asserts that, of the following years, nine were spent in a
drug A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...
-induced haze, culminating with a stay in Australia where he finally collapsed. He described this period of his life in an interview given on the Australian television show ''
Enough Rope ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'' (often shortened to ''Enough Rope'') is a television interview show originally broadcast on ABC1 in Australia. The title of the show came from the phrase " give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves ...
'' with
Andrew Denton Andrew Christopher Denton (born 4 May 1960) is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program ''Enough Rope'' and ...
in 2006: During his twenties he had been involved in a film production to explore the fall of the
Aztec Empire The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...
and follow trails to the remains of
Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
Emperor Moctezuma, and possibly to his lost treasure, the whereabouts of which remains one of Mexico's great mysteries. During the 1990s, he wrote his first novel whilst living in
Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...
, south London, finally agreeing a publication deal with
Faber & 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 B ...
on 11 September 2001. In the following weeks he relocated to
County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...
, Ireland, where he began work on a second novel. The Man Booker Prize comes with a monetary award of £50,000. Upon being notified of his victory, Pierre said that the money would go part way toward paying off the debts incurred in his 20s, when psychological issues and drug abuse were driving forces. The letters in his pen name stand for "Dirty but clean" in reference to his former hardships.


Recent years

In 2005 DBC Pierre revisited the Mexico of his youth to finally explore and document the downfall of the
Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
. In this revealing
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
documentary he revisits the Aztecs' epic tale of decline and conquest. ''The Last Aztec'', part historical film and part road movie, was aired in 2006 and follows Pierre as he traces the advance of the Spanish
conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
s toward the Aztec capital. It also picks up the threads he had intended to pursue in his ill-fated production of years earlier, centring on the wizards and witches of an
Otomi The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...
culture in a remote valley in the
Sierra Madre Sierra Madre (Spanish, 'mother mountain range') may refer to: Places and mountains Mexico *Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona *Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range in northeastern Mexico *S ...
mountains of central Mexico. In 2007 his first novel, ''
Vernon God Little ''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play. Plot synopsis The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...
'', was adapted by Tanya Ronder for the London stage. It was directed by
Rufus Norris Rufus Norris (born 16 January 1965) is a British theatre and film director, who is currently the Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre. Life and career Norris grew up in Africa and Malaysia, attended North Bromsgr ...
at the
Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...
from 27 April – 9 June. To date the work has been translated in more than 40 countries worldwide and produced as a play by at least four theatre companies. In 2009, he donated the short story "Suddenly Dr Cox" 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. Pierre's story was published in the ''Air'' collection. He is also a contributor to the 2009 rock
biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
on
The Triffids The Triffids were an Australian alternative rock and pop band, formed in Perth in Western Australia in May 1978 with David McComb as singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboardist.McFarlane (1999). Encyclopedia entry fo"The Triff ...
''Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids'', edited by Australian academics
Niall Lucy Niall Lucy (11 November 1956 - 5 June 2014) was an Australian writer and scholar best known for his work in deconstruction. Career Niall Lucy served as a professor in the School of Media, Culture & Creative Arts at Curtin University, and a ...
and Chris Coughran.


Published works

;Novels * ''
Vernon God Little ''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play. Plot synopsis The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...
'' (January 2003,
Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
2003) * ''
Ludmila's Broken English ''Ludmila's Broken English'' is the second novel by Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre. It was published in March 2006. Plot introduction The novel follows two initially separate narratives set in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Recently ...
'' (February 2006) * ''Lights Out in Wonderland'' (September 2010) * ''Breakfast with the Borgias'' (July 2014) * ''Meanwhile in Dopamine City'' (August 2020) ;Non-fiction * ''Release the Bats'' (July 2016) ;Short stories * ''Suddenly Doctor Cox'' (May 2009) * ''Petit Mal'' (November 2013)


References


External links

*
Recorded interview with DBC Pierre
Feeding the Chooks
Interview discussing Ludmila's Broken English
article on DBC Pierre ''(
BBC Collective ''Collective'' was an "interactive culture magazine" hosted by the BBC's website bbc.co.uk and run using the "DNA" software developed for h2g2. It was launched in May 2002 and became interactive four months later. Among its editors were Rowan K ...
)''
How did I get here?
article on DBC Pierre ''(
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 ...
)''
Strong first impression
interview with DBC Pierre ( Powell's City of Books)
What have you learnt in your time on this planet?
recorded interview with DBC Pierre, April 2006 ''(
RTRFM RTRFM (call sign: 6RTR) is a not-for-profit, community radio station based in Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. It is self-funded, largely through listener subscription and fund-raising events. However, it does carry some "advertis ...
)''
Faber and Faber
DBC Pierre's UK publisher
A short interview with DBC Pierre
discussing
Ludmila's Broken English ''Ludmila's Broken English'' is the second novel by Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre. It was published in March 2006. Plot introduction The novel follows two initially separate narratives set in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Recently ...

BBC Entertainment
video and links to DBC Pierre and Man Booker * Video Interview with Martin Goodman a
The Philip Larkin Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Dbc 1961 births Living people Booker Prize winners Writers from Adelaide 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists 21st-century pseudonymous writers