Tobias Hill
Encyclopedia
Tobias Hill is an award-winning British poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist.
, in North London, to parents of German Jewish and English extraction: his maternal grandfather was the brother of Gottfried Bermann
, confidant of Thomas Mann
and, as owner of S. Fischer Verlag
, German literature's leading publisher-in-exile during the Second World War. Hill was educated at Hampstead School
and Sussex University. He lives in Cricklewood
, north London.
) Zoo (1998) and Nocturne in Chrome & Sunset Yellow (2006). The last of these was described by The Guardian as "A vital, luminous collection... it is rare to come across a collection of poetry that you know with certainty you will still be reading years from now, but for me, this is such a book." Hill's collection of short stories, Skin (1997), was serialized on BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for the 1998 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize, and won the International PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award
.
, this dark, neo-gothic work follows the story of Casimir, a Polish immigrant, as he comes to terms with his personal and national past. Underground won the Betty Trask Prize and the Arts Council
Writer's Award.
The Love of Stones (2001), Hill's second novel, garnered wider recognition: it charts the lives of two nineteenth century Jewish brothers and a contemporary protagonist, Katharine Sterne, whose stories are entwined with that of a long-lost jewel, known as "The Three Brothers", once owned by Elizabeth I.
Hill's third novel, The Cryptographer, was published in 2003. A sparer narrative than The Love of Stones, it tells the story of a global financial disaster, examining issues of trust and secrecy. The Cryptographer is set in the near future, but comprises a shadow portrait of the enigmatic historical figure John Law
. In December 2003 the Hay Festival
showcased the novel as its Book of the Year. It was described by the author A. S. Byatt
as evidence of "one of the two or three most original and interesting young novelists working in Britain today".
Tobias Hill's fourth novel, The Hidden, was published to acclaim in January 2009. In the Guardian, the author James Lasdun
called it "an elaborate mystery along the lines of The Magus
or The Secret History
, and a sustained meditation on the special ethics of terrorism in ancient and modern times...You don't often see writing as lively as this." The author Kamila Shamsie
, in The Observer, wrote: "Apart from everything else that this novel is — a beautifully paced thriller, a meditation on loss, guilt, obsession — it is also one of the finest novels written so far about this, our age of terror."
, twice winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal
. He has also written for The Times
, The Observer
, The Independent
, The Guardian
and Time Out. From 1998 to 2001, he was the Sunday Telegraph
s rock
critic. He has edited the works of other writers, including Edgar Allan Poe
Secrecy, revelation and obsession are recurrent themes in Hill's fiction. In Skin, a worker at London Zoo investigates the disappearance of dead animals at the hands of an eerie figure, the Featherman, finally discovering his formalin-drenched lair in Camden Town's derelict stable-yards. In Underground, Casimir's physical explorations of London's subterranea echo his mental rediscovery of a traumatic childhood in Poland. In The Love of Stones, Katharine Sterne devotes her life to a search for a legendary lost jewel, the Three Brethren. The same motifs are used to powerful effect in The Hidden, and indeed the novel is prefaced with a quotation from John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
: "Every thing secret degenerates".
, Sussex University, and Eton College
. In 1999 he was the inaugural Poet in Residence at London Zoo
. In 2009 he became inaugural Programme Director of the Faber Academy.
His awards include an Eric Gregory Award in 1995, the Ian St James Award in 1997, and the Pen/Macmillan Silver Pen Award in 1997. He was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2002 and 2004, and for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2004.
Life
Tobias Hill was born in Kentish TownKentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
, in North London, to parents of German Jewish and English extraction: his maternal grandfather was the brother of Gottfried Bermann
Gottfried Bermann
Gottfried Bermann, later Gottfried Bermann Fischer was a German publisher. He owned the S. Fischer Verlag....
, confidant of Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
and, as owner of S. Fischer Verlag
S. Fischer Verlag
The German publishing house S. Fischer Verlag was founded in 1886 by Samuel Fischer in Berlin and is a leading German address for literary publications and fiction.Originally, it was renowned for naturalism literature...
, German literature's leading publisher-in-exile during the Second World War. Hill was educated at Hampstead School
Hampstead School
Hampstead School is a large multi-ethnic comprehensive school in the London borough of Camden. The school building is one of the oldest in the borough...
and Sussex University. He lives in Cricklewood
Cricklewood
Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...
, north London.
Poetry
Hill's early work appeared in magazines such as Envoi and The Frogmore Papers and published four collections,Year of the Dog (1995), Midnight in the City of Clocks (1996) (influenced by his experience of life in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) Zoo (1998) and Nocturne in Chrome & Sunset Yellow (2006). The last of these was described by The Guardian as "A vital, luminous collection... it is rare to come across a collection of poetry that you know with certainty you will still be reading years from now, but for me, this is such a book." Hill's collection of short stories, Skin (1997), was serialized on BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for the 1998 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize, and won the International PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
.
Novels
In 1999, Hill published his debut novel, Underground. Set on the London UndergroundLondon Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
, this dark, neo-gothic work follows the story of Casimir, a Polish immigrant, as he comes to terms with his personal and national past. Underground won the Betty Trask Prize and the Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
Writer's Award.
The Love of Stones (2001), Hill's second novel, garnered wider recognition: it charts the lives of two nineteenth century Jewish brothers and a contemporary protagonist, Katharine Sterne, whose stories are entwined with that of a long-lost jewel, known as "The Three Brothers", once owned by Elizabeth I.
Hill's third novel, The Cryptographer, was published in 2003. A sparer narrative than The Love of Stones, it tells the story of a global financial disaster, examining issues of trust and secrecy. The Cryptographer is set in the near future, but comprises a shadow portrait of the enigmatic historical figure John Law
John Law (economist)
John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...
. In December 2003 the Hay Festival
Hay Festival
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales for ten days from May to June. Devised by Norman and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind"...
showcased the novel as its Book of the Year. It was described by the author A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
as evidence of "one of the two or three most original and interesting young novelists working in Britain today".
Tobias Hill's fourth novel, The Hidden, was published to acclaim in January 2009. In the Guardian, the author James Lasdun
James Lasdun
James Lasdun is an English author, poet and academic. Lasdun was one of the judges for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize.-Career:...
called it "an elaborate mystery along the lines of The Magus
The Magus (novel)
The Magus is the first novel written by British author John Fowles. It tells the story of Nicholas Urfe, a teacher on a small Greek island...
or The Secret History
The Secret History
The Secret History, the first novel by Mississippi-born writer Donna Tartt, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition , and the book became a bestseller.Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics...
, and a sustained meditation on the special ethics of terrorism in ancient and modern times...You don't often see writing as lively as this." The author Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie is a Pakistani novelist who writes in the English language. She was brought up in Karachi and attended Karachi Grammar School....
, in The Observer, wrote: "Apart from everything else that this novel is — a beautifully paced thriller, a meditation on loss, guilt, obsession — it is also one of the finest novels written so far about this, our age of terror."
Other writing
Hill has written one book for children, The Lion Who Ate Everything, illustrated by Michael ForemanMichael Foreman
Michael James Foreman is an American astronaut.-Personal:Foreman was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio. He is married to Lorrie Dancer of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
, twice winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal
Kate Greenaway Medal
The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the United Kingdom in 1955 in honour of the children's illustrator, Kate Greenaway. The medal is given annually to an outstanding work of illustration in children's literature. It is awarded by Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
. He has also written for 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 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,...
, 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...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Time Out. From 1998 to 2001, he was the Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
s rock
critic. He has edited the works of other writers, including Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
Critical perspective
Amongst contemporary British authors, Hill is unusual in achieving recognition as a poet, a novelist and a writer of short stories. In 2003 he was nominated as one of the best young writers in Britain by the Times Literary Supplement. In 2004 he was selected as one of the country's Next Generation poets. His novels have been published worldwide.Secrecy, revelation and obsession are recurrent themes in Hill's fiction. In Skin, a worker at London Zoo investigates the disappearance of dead animals at the hands of an eerie figure, the Featherman, finally discovering his formalin-drenched lair in Camden Town's derelict stable-yards. In Underground, Casimir's physical explorations of London's subterranea echo his mental rediscovery of a traumatic childhood in Poland. In The Love of Stones, Katharine Sterne devotes her life to a search for a legendary lost jewel, the Three Brethren. The same motifs are used to powerful effect in The Hidden, and indeed the novel is prefaced with a quotation from John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL , known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Bt from 1837 to 1869 and usually referred to simply as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer...
: "Every thing secret degenerates".
Awards, residencies & associations
Hill has held writing residencies at Newnham College, CambridgeNewnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
, Sussex University, and Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
. In 1999 he was the inaugural Poet in Residence at London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
. In 2009 he became inaugural Programme Director of the Faber Academy.
His awards include an Eric Gregory Award in 1995, the Ian St James Award in 1997, and the Pen/Macmillan Silver Pen Award in 1997. He was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2002 and 2004, and for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2004.
External links
- Faber profile
- Poetry Society profile
- A review of Hill's The Hidden from "The Oxonian Review" (accessed 26 February 2009)
- British Council: Contemporary Writers website - Tobias Hill (with portrait and critical perspective) (accessed 19 March 2008)
- Guardian articles by Hill
- Review of The HIdden. Salon magazine 1 November 2009