Patrick Neate
Encyclopedia
Patrick Neate is an award-winning British
novelist, journalist
, poet
, screenwriter
and podcaster.
, he was educated at St. Paul's School and Cambridge University. He spent a gap year
in Zimbabwe
and has since returned to Africa
on many occasions. He drew on the gap year experience in Musungu Jim and the Great Chief Tuloko.
, London Pigeon Wars, Where You're At, City of Tiny Lights, Culture is Our Weapon, and Jerusalem.
Musungu Jim, Twelve Bar Blues and Jerusalem are a trilogy in that the characters of Jim and Musa Musa are found in all three novels. However, each stands alone.
In each, he takes a foreign culture and explores the nature of story and the power of stories to create identities. At its best, his writing is lyrical about the nature of humanity, and yet still sufficiently entertaining to count as an "easy read." Musungu Jim envisages a coup triggered off by a hapless gap year student in an African dictatorship not unlike Mugabe
's Zimbabwe. Twelve Bar Blues interweaves various characters but focusses chiefly on Lick Holden, a semi-mythical horn player, not unlike the legendary Buddy Bolden
.
In The London Pigeon Wars, he attempted to talk about his own milieu, London, but the twist comes through the fact that part of the narrative
is focalised
through the pigeons who are at war in the area. Thematically, it tackles the dangers of consumerism
.
City of Tiny Lights is a further change of genre, entering the mystery thriller. This time, the publication uncannily coincided with the 7/7 bombings in London as his cricket
-loving detective, Tommy Akhtar, uncovers crime that leads into terrorist cells.
Where You're At draws on Neate's first love, hip-hop. A work of non-fiction, it shows the author crossing the planet to uncover the meanings hip-hop has accrued in different cultures.
Jerusalem follows on from Musungu Jim and Twelve Bar Blues. It uses a three-way plot line: the first plotline follows a soldier at the time of the Boer War
struggling with Englishness; the second concerns Jim, Musa and the dictator of Zambawi; the third, a contemporary take on Britain, following style guru Preston Pinner, creating a new hip-hop sensation "Nobody", whose take on Jerusalem plays out as a major hit.
Across his work, recurring themes are the ability of re-envisage common situations from an alternative point of view, to imagine himself into the mindset of a completely different world and to realise the importance of story in establishing one's self identity.
Publications for which Neate has written include The Washington Post
, The Independent
, Building, Hospital Doctor, The Face
, Doctor, Minx, The Times
, The Telegraph
, Marie Claire
, The Sunday Times, The Guardian
, Harpers and Queen, The Sunday Tribune, The Standard, Mixmag, Sky, Q, Time Out, Tatler, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday.
Neate also wrote the screenplay for the film The Tesseract
, adapted from the book by Alex Garland
.
Neate's longform poem "Babel" was transformed into a physical theatre piece by acclaimed choreographers, Stan Won't Dance, in 2010.
A passionate supporter of literary diversity, Neate founded Book Slam with Ben Watt
(from Everything But The Girl
), the UK's best storytelling salon, where writers, poets and singer-songwriters perform in a nightclub environment. He is represented by the literary agent Simon Trewin at United Agents
in London, United Kingdom.
for his first novel, Musungu Jim. In 2001 he won a Whitbread Award for his second book, Twelve Bar Blues, which also won the Prix de l'inaperçu in France. In 2005, he won the NBCC Award for Criticism
for his non-fiction book about hip hop culture, Where You're At. He has also been shortlisted for the Authors' Club Award, the L.A. Times Book Award and an Edgar Award
(the Mystery Writers of America Awards).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
novelist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, poet
Poet
A 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...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and podcaster.
Early life
Born and raised as a Roman Catholic in South LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he was educated at St. Paul's School and Cambridge University. He spent a gap year
Gap year
An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...
in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and has since returned to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
on many occasions. He drew on the gap year experience in Musungu Jim and the Great Chief Tuloko.
Works
His books to date, in order of publication, include Musungu Jim, Twelve Bar BluesTwelve Bar Blues (novel)
Twelve Bar Blues is a 2001 novel by Patrick Neate, and the winner of that year's Whitbread novel award.The story is essentially about two people who share a common history - Fortis 'Lick' Holden, a cornet player in early 20th Century New Orleans, and Sylvia Di Napoli, a retired prostitute living in...
, London Pigeon Wars, Where You're At, City of Tiny Lights, Culture is Our Weapon, and Jerusalem.
Musungu Jim, Twelve Bar Blues and Jerusalem are a trilogy in that the characters of Jim and Musa Musa are found in all three novels. However, each stands alone.
In each, he takes a foreign culture and explores the nature of story and the power of stories to create identities. At its best, his writing is lyrical about the nature of humanity, and yet still sufficiently entertaining to count as an "easy read." Musungu Jim envisages a coup triggered off by a hapless gap year student in an African dictatorship not unlike Mugabe
Mugabe
Mugabe can refer to:*Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.*Sally Mugabe, first wife of Robert Mugabe.*Grace Mugabe, second wife of Robert Mugabe.*Omugabe , a title given to kings of Ankole of Uganda.*Mugabe Were, a Kenyan politician....
's Zimbabwe. Twelve Bar Blues interweaves various characters but focusses chiefly on Lick Holden, a semi-mythical horn player, not unlike the legendary Buddy Bolden
Buddy Bolden
Charles "Buddy" Bolden was an African American cornetist and is regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of rag-time music which later came to be known as jazz.- Life :...
.
In The London Pigeon Wars, he attempted to talk about his own milieu, London, but the twist comes through the fact that part of the narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
is focalised
Focalization
Focalization is a term coined by the French narrative theorist Gerard Genette. It refers to the perspective through which a narrative is presented. For example, a narrative where all information presented reflects the subjective perception of that information by a certain character is said to be...
through the pigeons who are at war in the area. Thematically, it tackles the dangers of consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
.
City of Tiny Lights is a further change of genre, entering the mystery thriller. This time, the publication uncannily coincided with the 7/7 bombings in London as his cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
-loving detective, Tommy Akhtar, uncovers crime that leads into terrorist cells.
Where You're At draws on Neate's first love, hip-hop. A work of non-fiction, it shows the author crossing the planet to uncover the meanings hip-hop has accrued in different cultures.
Jerusalem follows on from Musungu Jim and Twelve Bar Blues. It uses a three-way plot line: the first plotline follows a soldier at the time of the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
struggling with Englishness; the second concerns Jim, Musa and the dictator of Zambawi; the third, a contemporary take on Britain, following style guru Preston Pinner, creating a new hip-hop sensation "Nobody", whose take on Jerusalem plays out as a major hit.
Across his work, recurring themes are the ability of re-envisage common situations from an alternative point of view, to imagine himself into the mindset of a completely different world and to realise the importance of story in establishing one's self identity.
Publications for which Neate has written include The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Building, Hospital Doctor, The Face
The Face (magazine)
The Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
, Doctor, Minx, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
, The Sunday Times, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Harpers and Queen, The Sunday Tribune, The Standard, Mixmag, Sky, Q, Time Out, Tatler, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday.
Neate also wrote the screenplay for the film The Tesseract
The Tesseract (film)
The Tesseract, is a 2003 thriller film starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Based on the novel of the same name by Alex Garland, it is directed by Oxide Pang....
, adapted from the book by Alex Garland
Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar "Alex" Garland is a British novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychoanalyst Caroline and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. His maternal grandparents were zoologist Peter Medawar and author Jean Medawar...
.
Neate's longform poem "Babel" was transformed into a physical theatre piece by acclaimed choreographers, Stan Won't Dance, in 2010.
A passionate supporter of literary diversity, Neate founded Book Slam with Ben Watt
Ben Watt
Benjamin Brian Thomas Watt is a British musician, DJ, and record producer, best known as one half of the duo, Everything but the Girl.-Family:...
(from Everything But The Girl
Everything but the Girl
Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...
), the UK's best storytelling salon, where writers, poets and singer-songwriters perform in a nightclub environment. He is represented by the literary agent Simon Trewin at United Agents
United Agents
United Agents is a British talent and literary agency founded in 2007. It is situated on Lexington Street in London, UK and was set up by agents who had left Peters, Fraser & Dunlop . It is chaired by Lindy King and the managing director is St...
in London, United Kingdom.
Awards
In 2000, Neate won a Betty Trask AwardBetty Trask Award
The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. The awards were established in 1984 by the Society of Authors, at the bequest of the late Betty Trask, a reclusive author of over thirty romance novels...
for his first novel, Musungu Jim. In 2001 he won a Whitbread Award for his second book, Twelve Bar Blues, which also won the Prix de l'inaperçu in France. In 2005, he won the NBCC Award for Criticism
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
for his non-fiction book about hip hop culture, Where You're At. He has also been shortlisted for the Authors' Club Award, the L.A. Times Book Award and an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
(the Mystery Writers of America Awards).