Paul Pickering
Born (1952-05-09) 9 May 1952
Rotherham, Yorkshire, England
NationalityEnglish
Occupation(s)Novelist and playwright
Known forWild About Harry, Perfect English, The Blue Gate of Babylon, Charlie Peace, The Leopard's Wife, Over The Rainbow, Elephant

Paul Pickering (born 9 May 1952) is a British novelist and playwright.

Early life

Pickering was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, the son of Arthur Samuel Pickering and Lorna (née Grocock).[1] On his father’s side he is related to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Evelyn de Morgan, (née Pickering) and George III, and on his mother’s side to Yorkshire and Irish gypsy showmen.[2] His father died when he was nine and he was educated at the Royal Masonic Schools for Boys in Bushey, Hertfordshire and in vacations worked for Pearl Connor Magotsi, at the Edric Connor agency, which was a pioneer in promoting black theatre and the musical, Hair. He attended the University of Leicester,[3] where he read Psychology and Combined Arts and participated in revolutionary politics, was a union representative, and helped found the Anti-Interment League. From working in the steel works in vacations he financed hitch-hiking expeditions in north Africa and the Middle East but was prevented from getting to India after being banned from Iran for depicting the Shah half-dressed as a woman in a university sketch.[4] In 2020 he was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Creative Writing by Bath Spa University.[4][5]

Career

Pickering started his career as a journalist and columnist for The Times, The Sunday Times, Punch and the Evening Standard, among others,[4][6] but wrote his first novel, Wild About Harry, after an assignment to Paraguay to find the war criminal Josef Mengele.[7] The novel was both a critical and popular success and was long listed for the Man Booker Prize.[8] His second novel, Perfect English, about a young "Internationalista" in combat, as he, himself, had been,[2] in Nicaragua, was long listed for the Man Booker Prize and became another best seller.[9] His next novel, The Blue Gate of Babylon, also long listed for the Man Booker Prize, was also a best-seller and was chosen by The New York Times as a notable book of the year[10] and Pickering was chosen as one of WH Smith's top ten young British novelists.[11] Charlie Peace, his next controversial novel about the second coming of Christ in modern times, drew the quote from J. G. Ballard that Pickering was 'a truly subversive author' and called the decision not to publish the book in Britain 'pure censorship'.[12] The controversy led The Sunday Times to dub him 'the de facto Norman Mailer of the British Literati'.[12] After a near fatal stabbing in the Groucho Club in 1997 that blinded him in one eye,[13] Pickering went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last stages of the civil war, and produced The Leopard's Wife to favourable reviews.[14] He then went to Afghanistan for his highly acclaimed novel Over the Rainbow.[15][16] Pickering’s latest novel Elephant begins in Czarist St Petersburg and is about Pushkin’s idea of unselfish and redemptive love and an exceptional African elephant, the only sane being amid wars and refugees, racial conflict and a world gone mad. It is a story written by a lover, knowing his poet love is lost, but wanting to get her writing again.[17] Pickering has written short stories, poems and articles for publications all over the world. His work has been compared to that of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene,[18] but lately to Don DeLillo, Peter Carey and Bulgakov.[17]

Personal life

Pickering married artist and writer Alice Beckett in 1983 in Mahé in the Seychelles. They have one daughter, Persephone, born 1993, works for Mind in Kingston. Pickering is a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club[19] and is a keen scuba diver and a non-impact mountaineer and skier and practices Tai Chi. He has run six marathons[4][20] and performs with Soho Poets.

Honours and awards

Bibliography

Novels

Plays

  • After Hamlet (1994)
  • Walk Her Home (1999)
  • Coming Home - Whose Game is it Anyway? (2019)

Short story collections

  • Dream Kitchen, Winter's Tales No. 5 (1989)

References

  1. ↑ Debrett's People of Today 2011, Debrett's, p. 1318, ISBN 978-1-870520-46-1
  2. 1 2 "Library – Bath Spa University". Bathspa.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  3. ↑ Debrett's People of Today
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Paul Pickering". Paul-pickering.com. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  5. ↑ "Bath Spa University". Bathspa.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  6. ↑ “Best of Young British”, W H Smith News, May 1985
  7. ↑ Profile and interview in The Guardian, 23 March 1985.
  8. ↑ The Observer, 14 April 1985; "Booker contenders", The Bookseller, 29 June 1985; The Times, 11 April 1985; "Times Critics' Choice", The Times, 30 November 1985; "Christmas Books", The Observer, 1 December 1985; The Tablet, 25 May 1985; Punch, 29 May 1985; Winston-Salem Journal, 1 December 1985; The Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 December 1985; San Francisco Chronicle, 12 January 1986.
  9. ↑ Good Book Guide Annual Selection 1989; Number 2 in Fiction Bestseller list, The Irish Times, 8 November 1986; Stanley Reynolds, "Pickering is the Michael Frayn of the 1980's", Punch, 19 October 1985; "Booker Long List", The Bookseller, 23 August 1986; Toby Fitton, The Times Literary Supplement, 31 October 1986; Philip Howard, The Times, 2 October 1986
  10. ↑ The New York Times book review, 17 December 1989, and "Notable Books of the Year", 2 December 1990
  11. ↑ "Best of Young British", W H Smith News, May 1985
  12. 1 2 John Walsh, The Sunday Times, 17 November 1991
  13. ↑ Daily Express. 9 June 2000; "Groucho Pays Out Damages", Diary, Daily Express, 6 June 2000
  14. ↑ Katie Saunders, The Times, 30 July 2010; Review: The Leopard's Wife – Paul Pickering, Jane Housham, Daily Express, 30 June 2010
  15. ↑ "British novelist Paul Pickering evokes India in new book 'Elephant' - Times of India". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021.
  16. ↑ "Author Paul Pickering's Elephant: Felt With A Trunk". Outlookindia.com. 2 February 2022.
  17. 1 2 "Elephant by Paul Pickering — a picaresque pachyderm". Ft.com. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  18. ↑ Andrew Sinclair, review of Wild About Harry, The Times, 11 April 1985; David Holloway, review of Wild About Harry, magazine supplement in The Sunday Telegraph, 13 April 1985; Stephen Glover, review of Wild About Harry, The Daily Telegraph, 19 April 1985; John Sweeney, review of Wild About Harry, The Tablet, 25 May 1985; Christopher Pim, review of Wild About Harry, Punch, 29 May 1985; David White, review of Wild About Harry, New Society, 7 June 1875; Richard Burgin, review of Wild About Harry, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 December 1985; Carl Maves, review of Wild About Harry, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 April 1986; Stanley Reynolds, review of Perfect English, Punch, 1 October 1986; Sean French, review of Perfect English, New Society, 3 October 1986; Nicole Zand, review of The Blue Gate of Babylon, Le Monde des Livres, 24 March 1995
  19. ↑ Pickering, Paul (22 May 2015). "FREELANCE". TLS. Times Literary Supplement (5851): 16–17. Retrieved 28 June 2022 – via go.gale.com.
  20. ↑ "Virgin Money Giving". Uk.virginmoneygiving.com.
  21. ↑ "The Academy". Rathbonesfolioprize.com.
  22. ↑ "Website cost". Gala.network.prostats.org. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  23. ↑ "Salt Publishing UK | The UK's foremost independent literary publisher". Saltpublishing.com. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
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