Robert Harris (novelist)
Encyclopedia
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.
, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local printing plant where his father worked. Harris went to Belvoir High School in Bottesford
, and then King Edward VII School
, Melton Mowbray, where a hall is now named after him. There he wrote plays and edited the school magazine. Harris read English literature at Selwyn College, Cambridge
, where he was president of the Union and editor of the student newspaper Varsity
.
and Newsnight
. In 1987, at the age of thirty, he became political editor of The Observer
. He later wrote regular columns for The Sunday Times
and The Daily Telegraph
.
. Other non-fiction works followed: Gotcha, the Media, the Government and the Falklands Crisis (1983), The Making of Neil Kinnock (1984), Selling Hitler
(1986), an investigation of the Hitler Diaries
scandal, and Good and Faithful Servant (1990), a study of Bernard Ingham
, Margaret Thatcher
's press secretary.
in 1992, an alternative history set in a world where Germany has won World War II, enabled him to become a novelist full-time. The novel was filmed by HBO in 1994. He stated that the proceeds from the book enabled him to buy a house in the country where he still lives. His second novel Enigma
in 1995, was about the breaking of the Nazi Enigma
code. It, too, was filmed
, with Dougray Scott
and Kate Winslet
starring and a screenplay by Tom Stoppard
. Archangel (1998) was another international best seller. It was made into a BBC mini-series in 2005, starring future James Bond
actor Daniel Craig
.
with his acclaimed Pompeii
, yet another international best-seller. He followed this in 2006 with Imperium
, the first novel in a trilogy centred on the life of the great Roman orator Cicero
. The second novel, Lustrum
, was published in October 2009. It was released in February 2010 in the US under the alternate title of Conspirata
. The third and final novel is scheduled to be released in 2011.
(a personal acquaintance) and a donor to New Labour, but the war in Iraq blunted his enthusiasm. "We had our ups and downs, but we didn't really fall out until the invasion of Iraq, which made no sense to me," Harris has said.
In 2007, after Blair resigned, Harris dropped his other work to write The Ghost
. The title refers both to a professional ghostwriter
, whose lengthy memorandum forms the novel, and to his immediate predecessor who, as the action opens, has just drowned in gruesome and mysterious circumstances.
The dead man has been ghosting the autobiography of a recently unseated British prime minister called Adam Lang, a thinly veiled version of Blair. The fictional counterpart of Cherie Blair
is depicted as a sinister manipulator of her husband. Harris told The Guardian
before publication: "The day this appears a writ might come through the door. But I would doubt it, knowing him."
Harris said in a US National Public Radio interview that politicians like Lang and Blair, particularly when they have been in office for a long time, become divorced from everyday reality, read little and end up with a pretty limited overall outlook. When it comes to writing their memoirs, they therefore tend to have all the more need of a ghostwriter.
Harris hinted at a third, far less obvious, allusion hidden in the novel's title, and, more significantly, at a possible motive for having written the book in the first place. Blair, he said, had himself been ghostwriter, in effect, to President Bush
when giving public reasons for invading Iraq
: he had argued the case better than had the President himself.
The New York Observer
, headlining its otherwise hostile review The Blair Snitch Project, commented that the book’s "shock-horror revelation" was "so shocking it simply can’t be true, though if it were it would certainly explain pretty much everything about the recent history of Great Britain."
His latest novel, The Fear Index, was published by Hutchinson in September, 2011.
for director Roman Polanski
. The film, to be produced by Summit Entertainment
, was announced at the Cannes Film Festival
in 2007 as potentially the most expensive European film ever made, set to be shot in Spain. Media reports suggested Polanski wanted Orlando Bloom
and Scarlett Johansson
to play the two leads. The film was canceled as a result of the looming actors' strike that autumn.
Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris's bestseller, The Ghost
. They co-wrote a script and Polanski announced filming for early 2008, with Nicolas Cage
, Pierce Brosnan
, Tilda Swinton
, and Kim Cattrall
starring. The film was then postponed by a year, with Ewan McGregor
and Olivia Williams
replacing Cage and Swinton.
The film, retitled The Ghost Writer for territories outside the UK, was shot in early 2009 in Berlin and on the island of Sylt
in the North Sea, which stood in for London and Martha's Vineyard respectively, owing to Polanski's inability to travel legally to those places. In spite of his incarceration, he oversaw post-production from his house arrest and the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2010, with Polanski winning the Silver Bear for Best Director
award. Harris and Polanski later shared a César Award
for Best Adapted Screenplay.
in episode three of the first series in 1990, and in episode four of the second series a year later. In the first he appeared as a last-minute replacement for the politician Roy Hattersley
. He made a third appearance on the programme on 12 October 2007, seventeen years, to the day, after his first appearance. Since the gap between his second and third appearance was nearly 16 years, Harris enjoys the distinction of the longest gap between two successive appearances in the show's history.
.
, when he spoke about his childhood and his friendships with Tony Blair
and Roman Polanski
.
He referred to his house as "the house that Hitler bought", as he paid for it with the proceedings from his novel Fatherland.
vicarage near Newbury
, with his wife Gill Hornby, herself a writer and sister of best-selling novelist Nick Hornby
. They have four children. Harris contributed a short story, "PMQ", to Hornby's 2000 collection Speaking with the Angel
.
Early life
Born in NottinghamNottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local printing plant where his father worked. Harris went to Belvoir High School in Bottesford
Bottesford, Leicestershire
This page is about the English village of Bottesford near Grantham. For the Bottesford near Scunthorpe, see Bottesford, LincolnshireBottesford is a village and civil parish within the Melton district of Leicestershire, England....
, and then King Edward VII School
King Edward VII School (Melton Mowbray)
King Edward VII School was an LEA maintained 11-19 comprehensive secondary school in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire in the United Kingdom which closed in 2011. The school is situated on a green field site on the edge of Melton Mowbray. Formerly, the school was a public grammar school...
, Melton Mowbray, where a hall is now named after him. There he wrote plays and edited the school magazine. Harris read English literature at Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College is a constituent college in the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom.The college was founded by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of the Rt Reverend George Selwyn , who rowed on the Cambridge crew in the first Varsity Boat Race in 1829, and went on to become the...
, where he was president of the Union and editor of the student newspaper Varsity
Varsity (Cambridge)
Varsity is the oldest of Cambridge University's main student newspapers. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge...
.
Career
After leaving Cambridge, Harris joined the BBC and worked on news and current affairs programes such as PanoramaPanorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
and Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
. In 1987, at the age of thirty, he became political editor of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. He later wrote regular columns for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
and The Daily 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...
.
Non-fiction (1982–90)
Harris's first book appeared in 1982. A Higher Form Of Killing, a study of chemical and biological warfare, was written with fellow BBC journalist and close friend Jeremy PaxmanJeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
. Other non-fiction works followed: Gotcha, the Media, the Government and the Falklands Crisis (1983), The Making of Neil Kinnock (1984), Selling Hitler
Selling Hitler
Selling Hitler is a 1991 ITV television drama-documentary mini-series about the Hitler Diaries hoax and was based on Robert Harris's 1986 book Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries.-Plot:...
(1986), an investigation of the Hitler Diaries
Hitler Diaries
In April 1983, the West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from what purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, known as the Hitler Diaries , which were subsequently revealed to be forgeries...
scandal, and Good and Faithful Servant (1990), a study of Bernard Ingham
Bernard Ingham
Sir Bernard Ingham is a journalist and former civil servant who is best known as Margaret Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary while she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Today Ingham lectures in Public Relations at Middlesex University in London...
, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's press secretary.
First historical fiction (1992–99)
Harris's million-selling first novel FatherlandFatherland (novel)
Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain...
in 1992, an alternative history set in a world where Germany has won World War II, enabled him to become a novelist full-time. The novel was filmed by HBO in 1994. He stated that the proceeds from the book enabled him to buy a house in the country where he still lives. His second novel Enigma
Enigma (novel)
Enigma is a novel by Robert Harris about Tom Jericho, a young mathematician trying to break the Germans' "Enigma" ciphers during World War II. It was adapted to film in 2001...
in 1995, was about the breaking of the Nazi Enigma
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
code. It, too, was filmed
Enigma (2001 film)
Enigma is a 2001 British film about the Enigma codebreakers of Bletchley Park in World War II. The film, directed by Michael Apted, stars Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet. The film's screenplay was by Tom Stoppard, based on the novel Enigma by Robert Harris...
, with Dougray Scott
Dougray Scott
-Early life:The son of Elma, a nurse, and Alan Scott, an actor and salesperson, Stephen Dougray Scott was born in Glenrothes, Fife and attended Auchmuty High School...
and Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
starring and a screenplay by Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
. Archangel (1998) was another international best seller. It was made into a BBC mini-series in 2005, starring future James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
actor Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
.
Roman fiction (2003 onwards)
In 2003 Harris turned his attention to ancient RomeAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
with his acclaimed Pompeii
Pompeii (novel)
Pompeii is a novel by author and journalist Robert Harris published by Random House in 2003. It is a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 that overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding towns. Pompeii is especially notable for the author's...
, yet another international best-seller. He followed this in 2006 with Imperium
Imperium (novel)
Imperium is a 2006 novel by English author Robert Harris. It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told through the first-person narrator of his secretary Tiro, beginning with the prosecution of Verres....
, the first novel in a trilogy centred on the life of the great Roman orator Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
. The second novel, Lustrum
Lustrum (novel)
Lustrum is a 2009 novel by British author Robert Harris. It is the sequel to Imperium and the middle volume of a trilogy about the life of Cicero....
, was published in October 2009. It was released in February 2010 in the US under the alternate title of Conspirata
Lustrum (novel)
Lustrum is a 2009 novel by British author Robert Harris. It is the sequel to Imperium and the middle volume of a trilogy about the life of Cicero....
. The third and final novel is scheduled to be released in 2011.
Contemporary political fiction
Harris was an early and enthusiastic backer of British Prime Minister Tony BlairTony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
(a personal acquaintance) and a donor to New Labour, but the war in Iraq blunted his enthusiasm. "We had our ups and downs, but we didn't really fall out until the invasion of Iraq, which made no sense to me," Harris has said.
In 2007, after Blair resigned, Harris dropped his other work to write The Ghost
The Ghost (novel)
The Ghost is a contemporary political thriller by the best-selling English novelist and journalist Robert Harris.In 2007 British prime minister Tony Blair resigned. Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write the book...
. The title refers both to a professional ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
, whose lengthy memorandum forms the novel, and to his immediate predecessor who, as the action opens, has just drowned in gruesome and mysterious circumstances.
The dead man has been ghosting the autobiography of a recently unseated British prime minister called Adam Lang, a thinly veiled version of Blair. The fictional counterpart of Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...
is depicted as a sinister manipulator of her husband. Harris told The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
before publication: "The day this appears a writ might come through the door. But I would doubt it, knowing him."
Harris said in a US National Public Radio interview that politicians like Lang and Blair, particularly when they have been in office for a long time, become divorced from everyday reality, read little and end up with a pretty limited overall outlook. When it comes to writing their memoirs, they therefore tend to have all the more need of a ghostwriter.
Harris hinted at a third, far less obvious, allusion hidden in the novel's title, and, more significantly, at a possible motive for having written the book in the first place. Blair, he said, had himself been ghostwriter, in effect, to President Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
when giving public reasons for invading Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
: he had argued the case better than had the President himself.
The New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, headlining its otherwise hostile review The Blair Snitch Project, commented that the book’s "shock-horror revelation" was "so shocking it simply can’t be true, though if it were it would certainly explain pretty much everything about the recent history of Great Britain."
His latest novel, The Fear Index, was published by Hutchinson in September, 2011.
Work with Roman Polanski
Harris wrote a screenplay of his novel PompeiiPompeii (novel)
Pompeii is a novel by author and journalist Robert Harris published by Random House in 2003. It is a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 that overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding towns. Pompeii is especially notable for the author's...
for director Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
. The film, to be produced by Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
, was announced at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 2007 as potentially the most expensive European film ever made, set to be shot in Spain. Media reports suggested Polanski wanted Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom is an English actor. He had his break-through roles in 2001 as the elf-prince Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and starring in 2003 as blacksmith Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, and subsequently established himself as a lead in Hollywood...
and Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
to play the two leads. The film was canceled as a result of the looming actors' strike that autumn.
Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris's bestseller, The Ghost
The Ghost (novel)
The Ghost is a contemporary political thriller by the best-selling English novelist and journalist Robert Harris.In 2007 British prime minister Tony Blair resigned. Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write the book...
. They co-wrote a script and Polanski announced filming for early 2008, with Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
, Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
, and Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
starring. The film was then postponed by a year, with Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
and Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
replacing Cage and Swinton.
The film, retitled The Ghost Writer for territories outside the UK, was shot in early 2009 in Berlin and on the island of Sylt
Sylt
Sylt is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Frisia...
in the North Sea, which stood in for London and Martha's Vineyard respectively, owing to Polanski's inability to travel legally to those places. In spite of his incarceration, he oversaw post-production from his house arrest and the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2010, with Polanski winning the Silver Bear for Best Director
Silver Bear for Best Director
The Silver Bear for Best Director is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for best achievement in direction.-Awards:-Repeated winners:*Mario Monicelli *Satyajit Ray *Carlos Saura -External links:*...
award. Harris and Polanski later shared a César Award
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
for Best Adapted Screenplay.
TV appearances
Harris has appeared on the BBC satirical panel game Have I Got News for YouHave I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
in episode three of the first series in 1990, and in episode four of the second series a year later. In the first he appeared as a last-minute replacement for the politician Roy Hattersley
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...
. He made a third appearance on the programme on 12 October 2007, seventeen years, to the day, after his first appearance. Since the gap between his second and third appearance was nearly 16 years, Harris enjoys the distinction of the longest gap between two successive appearances in the show's history.
Columnist
Harris was a columnist for the Sunday Times, but gave it up in 1997. He returned to journalism in 2001, writing for the Daily Telegraph. He was named "Columnist of the Year" at the 2003 British Press AwardsBritish Press Awards
The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
.
Desert Island Discs
On 2nd December 2010, Harris appeared on the radio programme Desert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
, when he spoke about his childhood and his friendships with Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
.
He referred to his house as "the house that Hitler bought", as he paid for it with the proceedings from his novel Fatherland.
Personal life
Harris lives in a (former) BerkshireBerkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
vicarage near Newbury
Newbury
-In the United Kingdom:* Newbury, Berkshire**Newbury **Newbury Racecourse**Newbury F.C.**A.F.C. Newbury**Newbury R.F.C.**Newbury Building Society**Newbury Weekly News**Newbury College**Newbury railway station...
, with his wife Gill Hornby, herself a writer and sister of best-selling novelist Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
. They have four children. Harris contributed a short story, "PMQ", to Hornby's 2000 collection Speaking with the Angel
Speaking with the Angel
Speaking with the Angel is a collection of short stories edited by Nick Hornby and published by Riverhead Trade in 2001...
.
Fiction
- FatherlandFatherland (novel)Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain...
(1992) - EnigmaEnigma (novel)Enigma is a novel by Robert Harris about Tom Jericho, a young mathematician trying to break the Germans' "Enigma" ciphers during World War II. It was adapted to film in 2001...
(1995) - Archangel (1999)
- PompeiiPompeii (novel)Pompeii is a novel by author and journalist Robert Harris published by Random House in 2003. It is a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 that overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding towns. Pompeii is especially notable for the author's...
(2003) - The GhostThe Ghost (novel)The Ghost is a contemporary political thriller by the best-selling English novelist and journalist Robert Harris.In 2007 British prime minister Tony Blair resigned. Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write the book...
(2007) - The Fear Index (2011)
Cicero trilogy
- ImperiumImperium (novel)Imperium is a 2006 novel by English author Robert Harris. It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told through the first-person narrator of his secretary Tiro, beginning with the prosecution of Verres....
(2006) - LustrumLustrum (novel)Lustrum is a 2009 novel by British author Robert Harris. It is the sequel to Imperium and the middle volume of a trilogy about the life of Cicero....
(retitled Conspirata for release in US and Italy) (2009)
Short stories
- PMQ, short story in the collection Speaking with the AngelSpeaking with the AngelSpeaking with the Angel is a collection of short stories edited by Nick Hornby and published by Riverhead Trade in 2001...
(2000)
Non-fiction
- A Higher Form of Killing: Secret Story of Gas and Germ Warfare (1982 with Jeremy PaxmanJeremy PaxmanJeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
) - Gotcha! The Government, the Media and the Falklands Crisis (1983)
- The Making of Neil Kinnock (1984)
- Selling Hitler: Story of the Hitler Diaries (1986)
- Good and Faithful Servant: Unauthorized Biography of Bernard InghamBernard InghamSir Bernard Ingham is a journalist and former civil servant who is best known as Margaret Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary while she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Today Ingham lectures in Public Relations at Middlesex University in London...
(1990)
External links
- transcript of interview with Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
on The Book ShowThe Book ShowThe Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
ABC Radio National 13 November 2007