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Susanna Clarke biography

Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham, England in 1959, a Methodist Minister’s eldest daughter. Oxford educated (philosophy, politics and economics at St Hilda’s College), she is best known (so far) for her award winning novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which was published in 2004.

Susanna Clarke spent eight years working in publishing before moving to Turin, Italy in 1990. In Italy she taught English to employees of the Fiat motor company before moving to Bilbao in Spain in 1991 to teach English there. She moved back to England in 1992.

In 1993, Susanna Clarke began writing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the novel took ten years to complete, and a period she herself describes as "a crazy amount of time to spend on anything". During these ten years she worked as a cookery editor for the company Simon and Schuster in Cambridge. The book is dedicated to Susanna Clarke's brother Paul Frederick Gunn Clarke, who died in the year 2000.

"I always really liked magicians. I’m not even sure why—except that they know things other people don’t and they live in untidy rooms full of strange objects. In C. S. Lewis’s Narnia stories there are only two magicians. One is weak and wicked, and the other barely gets two lines of dialogue. But they both fascinated me. One (the weak one) has a tray of magic rings, green and yellow, as shiny and bright as sweets. They’re magic, they’re jewellery and they look like scrummy sweets. What’s not to like?"
Susanna Clarke interview with BBC Nottingham

Although it took the publication of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to make Susanna Clarke a household name, she had already had seven short stories published in the United States. Of these, Mr Simonelli, or The Fairy Widower was short listed for the 1991 World Fantasy Award.

These are her five favourite authors as mentioned in a BBC interview.

Jane Austen
Alan Moore
Charles Dickens
Neil Gaiman
Joss Whedon

Susanna Clarke lists boredom and listlessness as two contributing factors in becoming a writer.

Susanna Clarke is married to fellow author Colin Greenland and is currently writing a follow up to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell but set a few years in the future and centres on different characters. She currently lives in Cambridge.

Visit www.jonathanstrange.com to read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell's own reactions to Susanna Clarke's novel as well as their views on the author. You'll also find Susanna Clarke's short story, "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse", an interview, e-cards, a readers' guide and many other magical things...

Susanna Clarke bibliography

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Ladies of Grace Adieu: And Other Stories

Susanna Clarke interviews

The Nottingham born author is interviewed by her local BBC shortly before the release of her much anticipated novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Susanna Clarke interview with BBC Nottingham >>

Susanna Clarke critical acclaim

"Dazzling, witty and gleefully entertaining ... A triumph of traditional imaginative storytelling, this is an energetic, engaging and inventive tale that simply kidnaps the lucky reader to participate in a rare experience" Irish Times