English Passengers

Matthew Kneale studied Modern History at Oxford University. He then spent a year in Japan where he began writing short stories. He is author of several novels, including English Passengers (2000) which won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He currently lives in Rome.

Date: 2013-08-06
Matthew Kneale studied Modern History at Oxford University. He is the author of several novels, including English Passengers which won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in Rome.

Matthew Kneale was born in 1960, the son of two writers, and grew up in London surburbia. He went on to study History at Oxford University, specialising in the nineteenth century. Upon completion he travelled to Tokyo, where he found work teaching English, and it was then that he first tried writing short stories. Returning to England he completed his first novel, Whore Banquets, which was published by Victor Gollancz in 1987 and won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1988. His other novels include Inside Rose's Kingdom, published by Victor Gollanca in 1989, and Sweet Thames which was published by Sinclair-Stevenson in 1992 and won the 1993 John Llewellyn Rhys Award. A paperback edition of his latest novel, English Passengers, will be published to coincide with his Australian tour during September 2000. Matthew Kneale has travelled extensively and has studied numerous languages. He currently lives in Oxford.