Philip Blake Morrison (born 8 October 1950) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
who has published in a wide range of
fictionFiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contrafactual events...
and
non-fictionNonfiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be...
genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs
And When Did You Last See Your Father? which won the
J. R. Ackerley Prize for AutobiographyThe J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography is awarded annually by the English Centre for International PEN to an author resident in Britain who has written an outstanding autobiography in English. The winner receives £1,000 and a silver pen. The winner is announced on PEN Writers' Day in June. The...
. He has also written a study of the
James BulgerThe murder of James Bulger is a case concerning the abduction and murder of James Bulger, a child from Kirkby, England, in 1993. His killers were two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson ....
murder,
As If. Since 2003, Morrison has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Philip Blake Morrison (born 8 October 1950) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
who has published in a wide range of
fictionFiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contrafactual events...
and
non-fictionNonfiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be...
genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs
And When Did You Last See Your Father? which won the
J. R. Ackerley Prize for AutobiographyThe J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography is awarded annually by the English Centre for International PEN to an author resident in Britain who has written an outstanding autobiography in English. The winner receives £1,000 and a silver pen. The winner is announced on PEN Writers' Day in June. The...
. He has also written a study of the
James BulgerThe murder of James Bulger is a case concerning the abduction and murder of James Bulger, a child from Kirkby, England, in 1993. His killers were two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson ....
murder,
As If. Since 2003, Morrison has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by King George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
.
His new novel is
South of the River.
Life and career
Morrison was born in
SkiptonSkipton is a civil parish and historic market town in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England...
,
North YorkshireNorth Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county, located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county in that region and also partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest ceremonial...
to an English father and an Irish mother. His parents were both physicians; his mother's maiden name was Agnes O'Shea, but her husband persuaded her to change "Agnes" to "Kim". The details of his mother's life in Ireland, to which he had not been privy, formed the basis for his autobiographical novel,
Things My Mother Never Told Me.
Blake Morrison attended
Ermysted's Grammar SchoolErmysteds Grammar School is a LEA-funded selective boys' Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire teaching over 700 pupils.It is the seventh oldest state school in Britain and was founded by Peter Toller in the 15th century. The first official record of the school was seen in Peter Toller's will...
before going on to study English Literature at the
University of NottinghamThe University of Nottingham is a public research university in the city of Nottingham, England, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
and
UCLUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
. He worked for the
Times Literary Supplement (1978-81)' and was literary editor of both
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
(1981-89) and the
Independent on Sunday (1989-95). Morrison's early writing career outside of journalism was as a poet and poetry critic. He became a full-time writer in 1995 and has since produced novels and volumes of autobiography as well as plays, libretti, and writing for television. He has contributed articles to
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...
, the
London Review of BooksThe London Review of Books is a fortnightly British literary and political magazine.The LRB was founded in 1979 during the year-long lock-out at The Times...
, the
New StatesmanThe New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, the
New York Times and
Poetry Review and since 2001 he has written regularly for
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
. In 2003 he became Professor of Creative and Life Writing at
Goldsmiths CollegeGoldsmiths, University of London, is a constituent college of the University of London. Based in New Cross, London, Goldsmiths specialises in the teaching and research of creative, cultural and cognitive disciplines. The institution was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative...
, London, and in 2008 he became Chair of The Reader Organisation, the UK centre for research and promotion of reading as a therapeutic activity.
Morrison is married, with three children, and lives in
BlackheathBlackheath is an area in southeast London, centred around a section of open public grassland and straddling the boundary of the London Borough of Lewisham and the London Borough of Greenwich. The focal point of Blackheath is its centre which is known as the Village...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. He is a keen supporter of Burnley Football Club.
Published works
His first book was
The Movement: English Poetry and Fiction of the 1950s (
Oxford University PressOxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
, 1980). This was followed in 1982 by a critical guide to
Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He currently lives in Dublin.-Early life:...
's poetry. Also in 1982 he co-edited
The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry with
Andrew MotionSir Andrew Motion, FRSL, is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.- Early life and education :...
. His first book of poetry,
Dark Glasses was published by
Chatto and WindusChatto and Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....
in 1984. Other published works include
Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper (1986), written in Yorkshire dialect and
Pendle Witches (1996), illustrated with
etchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s by
Paula RegoPaula Figueiroa Rego, GCSE is a Portuguese painter, illustrator and printmaker, who has lived in Britain since 1951. She was born in Lisbon to a rich family, during Salazar´s regime, which would be a later influence in her work....
. His poems have also appeared in several anthologies, including
Penguin Modern Poets 1 (1995).
His first novel was
The Justification of Johann Gutenberg (Chatto & Windus, 2000); his most recent
South of the River was published in April 2007.
Film
And When Did You Last See Your Father?And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a 2007 British/Irish drama film directed by Anand Tucker. The screenplay by David Nicholls is based on the 1993 memoir of the same title by Blake Morrison.-Plot:...
has recently been made into a film starring
Jim BroadbentJames "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
as his father,
Juliet StevensonJuliet Anne Virginia Stevenson CBE is an English actress of stage and screen.- Background :Juliet Anne Virginia Stevens was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevens, an army officer...
as his mother,
Gina McKeeGeorgina "Gina" McKee is an English actress best known for her television roles in Our Friends in the North , The Lost Prince and The Forsyte Saga ; and her portrayal of Bella in the film Notting Hill .-Early life:The daughter of a coal miner, McKee grew up in Peterlee, County Durham — an...
as his wife,
Sarah LancashireSarah Lancashire is an English actress, probably best recognised for her role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.-Television:...
as Aunty Beaty, and
Colin FirthColin Andrew Firth is an English film, television, and stage actor. Firth first gained wide public attention, especially in England, for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the highly acclaimed 1995 television adaption of Pride and Prejudice...
and
Matthew BeardFor the American child actor , see Matthew Beard .Matthew Beard is an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Blake Morrison in the 2007 film And When Did You Last See Your Father?....
playing Blake Morrison himself as an adult and teenager, respectively.
It was directed by
Anand TuckerAnand Tucker is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts...
, produced by Elizabeth Karlsson, with a screenplay by
David Nicholls-Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...
. Filming took place in
CromfordCromford is a large village in Derbyshire, England,-History:It is one of the significant sites in the development of the Industrial Revolution...
,
DerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains...
and the surrounding area. The film was released in 2007.
The TV series of his new novel
South of the River is being made by
World ProductionsWorld Productions is a British television production company, founded in the early 1990s by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett. The company's first major series was the police drama Between The Lines , and throughout the decade they went on to produce a succession of highly successful drama series...
and adapted by acclaimed
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
Danny BrocklehurstDanny Brocklehurst is a BAFTA winning English screenwriter. Brocklehurst worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a full-time screenwriter.He has written on high-profile television drama series in the UK...
.
Awards
- 1980 Eric Gregory Award
The Eric Gregory Award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30 on submission. The awards are up to a sum value of £24000 annually.-Winners:*2009: Liz Berry, James Brookes, Swithun Cooper, Alex McRae, Sam Riviere...
- 1985 Dylan Thomas Award
- 1985 Somerset Maugham Award
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to who they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
for Dark Glasses
- 1988 E. M. Forster Award
The E. M. Forster Award is a $20,000 award given annually to an Irish or British writer to fund a period of travel in the United States. The award, named after the English novelist E. M. Forster, is administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
- 1993 Esquire/Volvo/Waterstone's Non-Fiction Book Award for And When Did You Last See Your Father?
- 1994 J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography
The J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography is awarded annually by the English Centre for International PEN to an author resident in Britain who has written an outstanding autobiography in English. The winner receives £1,000 and a silver pen. The winner is announced on PEN Writers' Day in June. The...
for And When Did You Last See Your Father?
External links