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Philip Hensher

Author profile

born

London, The United Kingdom

gender

male

website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hensher

genre

Fiction

About this author

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Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languag...more Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishco...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.(less)

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Philip Hensher's Books

Average rating: 3.35 · 1,898 ratings · 451 reviews · 17 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Northern Clemency 3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 1,158 ratings — published 2008 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	King of the Badgers 3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 avg rating — 305 ratings — published 2011 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mulberry Empire 3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 avg rating — 139 ratings — published 2002 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting 3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 avg rating — 98 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scenes from an Early Life 3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fit 3.2 of 5 stars 3.20 avg rating — 35 ratings — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pleasured 3.05 of 5 stars 3.05 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1998 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kitchen Venom 2.72 of 5 stars 2.72 avg rating — 18 ratings — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bedroom Of The Mister's Wife 3.09 of 5 stars 3.09 avg rating — 11 ratings — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Other Lulus 2.89 of 5 stars 2.89 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Philip Hensher

“I think you can tell when you meet someone whether they read novels. There's some hollowness if they don't.”
― Philip Hensher

tags: quotes-to-live-by

7 people liked it

“It [fiction] allows us to see the world from the point of view of someone else and there has been quite a lot of neurological research that shows reading novels is actually good for you. It embeds you in society and makes you think about other people. People are certainly better at all sorts of things if they can hold a novel in their heads. It is quite a skill, but if you can't do it then you're missing out on something in life. I think you can tell, when you meet someone, whether they read novels or not. There is some little hollowness if they don't.”
― Philip Hensher

tags: reading-books

1 person liked it

“If you don't say anything it can't become important, but if you say it everyone's ever after got to walk round it like a pile of rocks in the living room.”
― Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency

tags: say-anything-rocks-living-room

1 person liked it

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Polls

This is the Non-Fiction Poll for the May Group Read

The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher

3 votes, 50.0%

The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

1 vote, 16.7%

Slipstream by Elizabeth Jane Howard

1 vote, 16.7%

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

1 vote, 16.7%

6 total votes

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Philip's Fans (13)

Philip Hensher

Author profile

combine editionsPhilip Hensher's Books

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Philip Hensher

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Philip Hensher's Books