Jonathan Buckley is a British novelist and travel writer. He is known for his experimental fiction and travel guides. His novel Tell (2023) won the Novel Prize in 2022, and his latest work, One Boat (2025), was longlisted for the Booker Prize.
Jonathan Buckley was born in Birmingham and grew up in Dudley. He studied English Literature at the University of Sussex, where he also completed an MA. He continued at King’s College London, researching the Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Before becoming a novelist, Buckley worked as a university tutor, stagehand, set builder, bookshop manager, decorator, and builder. In 1987, he was commissioned to write The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto.
He went on to serve as editorial director at Rough Guides and wrote further guides on Tuscany & Umbria, as well as Florence. He also contributed to The Rough Guide to Classical Music and The Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang (1997), was published by Fourth Estate. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), and So He Takes the Dog (2006). Later works include Contact (2010), Telescope (2011), Nostalgia (2013) and The River is the River (2015). The Great Concert of the Night (2018) and Live; live; live (2020) extended his exploration of fragmented and layered narrative voices.
Jonathan Buckley held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex from 2003 to 2005. From 2007 to 2011, he was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. In 2015, he won the BBC National Short Story Award for his story Briar Road.
Tell (2023) was published after his Novel Prize win. It takes the form of transcripts of interviews with a gardener about her employer, Curtis Doyle, who has vanished. The Times Literary Supplement described it as “a fascinating exploration of what it means to tell stories about our lives.” In 2024, it was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.
His most recent novel, One Boat (2025), was published by Fitzcarraldo. It follows Teresa, who returns to a small Greek town after her father’s death, having visited the same place nine years earlier following her mother’s death.
The novel interweaves past and present through Teresa’s encounters with townspeople, including a mechanic, a diving instructor and a waitress. It examines questions of identity, guilt and responsibility. The Times Literary Supplement called it “a strange, sly and self-assured novel, in which both nothing and everything happens.”
Jonathan Buckley now lives in Brighton.
Photo credit: www.jonathan-buckley.co.uk
Jonathan Buckley was born in Birmingham and grew up in Dudley. He studied English Literature at the University of Sussex, where he also completed an MA. He continued at King’s College London, researching the Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Before becoming a novelist, Buckley worked as a university tutor, stagehand, set builder, bookshop manager, decorator, and builder. In 1987, he was commissioned to write The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto.
He went on to serve as editorial director at Rough Guides and wrote further guides on Tuscany & Umbria, as well as Florence. He also contributed to The Rough Guide to Classical Music and The Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang (1997), was published by Fourth Estate. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), and So He Takes the Dog (2006). Later works include Contact (2010), Telescope (2011), Nostalgia (2013) and The River is the River (2015). The Great Concert of the Night (2018) and Live; live; live (2020) extended his exploration of fragmented and layered narrative voices.
Jonathan Buckley held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex from 2003 to 2005. From 2007 to 2011, he was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. In 2015, he won the BBC National Short Story Award for his story Briar Road.
Tell (2023) was published after his Novel Prize win. It takes the form of transcripts of interviews with a gardener about her employer, Curtis Doyle, who has vanished. The Times Literary Supplement described it as “a fascinating exploration of what it means to tell stories about our lives.” In 2024, it was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.
His most recent novel, One Boat (2025), was published by Fitzcarraldo. It follows Teresa, who returns to a small Greek town after her father’s death, having visited the same place nine years earlier following her mother’s death.
The novel interweaves past and present through Teresa’s encounters with townspeople, including a mechanic, a diving instructor and a waitress. It examines questions of identity, guilt and responsibility. The Times Literary Supplement called it “a strange, sly and self-assured novel, in which both nothing and everything happens.”
Jonathan Buckley now lives in Brighton.
Photo credit: www.jonathan-buckley.co.uk
years of life: 1956 – present
Books
- unavailable
- unavailable
- unavailable
Audiobooks
- unavailable
fb2epub
Drag & drop your files
(not more than 5 at once)