Susanna Clarke biography

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

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. She moved back to England in 1992.

In 1993, she 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.

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.

Awards

• Time's Best Novel of the Year (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2004
• Hugo Award for Best Novel (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2005
• World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2005
• Locus Award for Best First Novel (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2005
• Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2005
• British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year Award (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) - 2005

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 books

• 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

Latest news: Susanna Clarke

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Best selling sci-fi/fantasy audio-books – September 2009 – Audible.co.uk
September 2009 sees Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series still maintaining a stranglehold on the top 10 sci-fi/fantasy audio-book downloads, as listed by Audible.co.uk. Fantasy Book Review favourite Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke), read by Simon Prebble, is still performing well (w [...]

Best selling Sci-Fi & Fantasy audio-books – May 2009 – Audible.co.uk
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Simon Prebble interview (March 2009)
British born performer Simon Prebble is a stage, film and television actor who has played everything from Soaps to Shakespeare. As a narrator of some 350 audio book titles he has received critical acclaim from both fans and peers. He is one of Audiofile’s ‘Golden Voices’ and Voices of the Century’, [...]

Join The Cambridge News Book Club today!
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Best selling fantasy audio-books - October 2008 - Audible.co.uk
Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman are, once again, the most popular fantasy authors that have been recorded onto audio-books. It is Christopher Paolini, however, with the third instalment of his Inheritance Cycle that appears from nowhere to take top spot. The book was released amongst (almost) JK [...]

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Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule (unabridged) has stormed to the top of the fantasy charts at Audible.co.uk Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman The Subtle Knife by [...]