LAWRENCE NORFOLK

April 2, 2008

Lawrence Norfolk is the author of three historical novels which have together sold over a million copies and been translated into thirty-four languages.

Born in London in 1963, Norfolk moved with his parents to Iraq in the following year. Evacuated following the Six Day War in 1967, he grew up in the West Country of England. While studying English and American Literature at Kings College, London, he wrote his first novel, "Lemprière’s Dictionary" which was published in 1991. His second, "The Pope’s Rhinoceros" (1996) was written while living in Chicago and his third "In the Shape of a Boar" (2001) on his return to Britain. A large-scale work with the working title "The Levels" was abandoned in 2007. He is currently writing a novel set in seventeenth century England during the Civel War.

He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the Budapest Festival Prize for Literature and his work has been short-listed for the Impac Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Award and the Wingate/Jewish Quarterly Prize for Literature. In 1992 he was listed as one of Granta magazine’s Twenty Best of Young British Writers. In the same year he reported on the war in Bosnia for NEWS magazine of Austria.

Lawrence Norfolk’s journalism has appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout Europe and America. In the USA: The Washington Post, Esquire, GQ, Details and National Geographic Adventure. In Europe: The Times (London), The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian; in Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt; in Denmark, Politiken; in Austria, NEWS magazine, Profil magazine; in Sweden, Göteborgs Posten; in France, Le Figaro. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four’s "Saturday Review" and "Front Row" and BBC Radio Three’s "Nightwaves".

He lives in London with his wife and two sons.