Susanna Clarke was born on the 16th of November 1959 in Nottingham, England. She is the eldest daughter of a Methodist Minister, a profession that led to Susanna having a nomadic childhood, living in towns spread across Northern England and Scotland. She was subsequently educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, as was previous P-CON Guest of Honour Juliet E McKenna. Afterwards, she lived in London and worked in various aspects of non-fiction publishing before going to Italy in 1990 to teach English, first in Turin, where she taught executives of the Fiat motor company, and subsequently in Bilbao.

While in Bilbao, Susanna stated to write a crime novel, which she eventually abandoned. However, her return to England in 1992, along with a bout of illness during which she read Lord of the Rings, made her decide to try to write something centred on magic. This is when she started writing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which would eventually take her ten years to complete. In the meantime, she spent the years from 1993 to 2003 working as an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was eventually published in hardback by Bloomsbury in October 2004, and immediately became a publishing sensation. It sold 750,000 copies in the UK within two months of its release, and New Line Cinema, producers of The Lord of the Rings movie, have the option to adapt the book for the cinema. Susanna Clarke’s writing has been compared, by one reviewer, to equal parts Jane Austen and Charles Dickens flavoured with Rowling and Tolkien. The book, a magnificent volume in and of itself, weighs in at 782 pages, along with a remarkable 185 footnotes, and beautiful illustrations by Portia Rosenberg, and has been described by Neil Gaiman as unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years.

It has been nominated for, and won, numerous awards, unsurprisingly. Amongst these are the BookSense Adult Fiction Book of the Year for 2005, the Mythopoeic Award for 2005, the British Book Award Newcomer of the Year for 2005, the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for 2005, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel for 2005. It is also on the long list for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the largest prize of its kind in the world.

As well as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke had written a number of short stories. One of these, The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse, which originally appeared on Neil Gaiman’s website, and was thereafter published in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook by Charles Vess’ Green Man Press, is available to read here. Another story, Mr Simonelli, or The Fairy Widower, was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.

Her five favourite authors are Jane Austen, Alan Moore (who, in the words of Jonathan Ross, causes middle-aged men (and women) to fall to their knees in comic shops, weeping in gratitude), Charles Dickens, Neil Gaiman, and Joss Whedon.

Susanna lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland, where she is at work on her next novel, which will be set in the same world as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but with new characters, along with a handful from the first book.

The chairman and committee of the Phoenix Convention are very pleased and grateful to have Susanna appearing as Guest of Honour at P-CON III.

Susanna Clarke’s website can be found at www.jonathanstrange.com.

The photograph of Susanna Clarke is courtesy of Bloomsbury, and is copyright to Mark Pringle.

Susanna Clarke’s bio by Anne M Kletcha