James Meek (author)

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This article is about a living British writer. For other people named James Meek, see James Meek (disambiguation).

James Meek (born 1962) is a British novelist and journalist, author of The People's Act of Love. He was born in London, England, and grew up in Dundee, Scotland.

Biography

Meek attended school at

New Edinburgh Review and he collaborated with Duncan McLean on a play, Faculty of Rats, which starred Angus Macfadyen.[1]

After a few years in England Meek returned to Edinburgh in 1988, where he worked for The Scotsman. The following year, his first novel, McFarlane Boils the Sea, was published.[2] In 1990 he helped McLean set up the garage publishing house Clocktower Press.[3]

In 1991, Meek moved to

The London Review of Books
.

Fiction

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Meek was associated with the emerging experimental realist school of Scottish writers, including Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner, appearing with them on the pages of the Kevin Williamson-edited short story collection Children of Albion Rovers.[4] His fiction during this time – two novels and two books of short stories – was characterised by surrealism and absurdism and influenced by writers such as Franz Kafka and James Kelman.[5][6][7] Meek has described it as "magical dirty realism".[8]

Meek’s third novel, The People’s Act of Love, published in 2005, brought him critical acclaim[9][10][11] and a wider audience. It was translated into more than twenty languages and earned a number of awards and a nomination for the Booker Prize. Newsweek magazine named it one of the top ten works of fiction of the 2000s.[12] Johnny Depp optioned the book for a film adaptation.[13]

The People's Act of Love, about a woman and her three lovers in a small Siberian town during the

9/11,[15] and The Heart Broke In (2012), set in contemporary Britain, where a newspaper editor blackmails a TV producer into betraying his sister.[16]

Journalism

Besides reporting on Britain and the former Soviet Union, Meek covered the military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. In 2003 he crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq, following the invading American armies to Baghdad in a small group of journalists that included Dexter Filkins.[17]

In 2014 Meek published Private Island, a collection of essays, mainly from the London Review of Books, about the privatisation of Britain.

Awards and honours: Fiction

Awards and honours: Non-fiction

Bibliography

  • To Calais, In Ordinary Time (Canongate, 2019),
    ISBN 9781786896742
  • Dreams of Leaving and Remaining (Verso, 2019),
    ISBN 9781788735230
  • Private Island. Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else (Verso, 2014),
    ISBN 978-1781682906
  • The Heart Broke In (Canongate, 2012)
    ISBN 9780857862907
  • We Are Now Beginning Our Descent (Canongate, 2008),
    ISBN 1-84195-988-X
  • The People's Act of Love (Canongate, 2005),
    ISBN 1-84195-706-2
  • The Museum of Doubt (Rebel Inc, 2000),
    ISBN 1-84195-808-5
  • Drivetime (Polygon, 1995),
    ISBN 0-7486-6205-7
  • Last Orders and Other Stories (Polygon, 1992),
    ISBN 0-7486-6127-1
  • McFarlane Boils the Sea (Polygon, 1989),
    ISBN 0-7486-6006-2

Translations

Czech

Danish

Dutch

  • Uit liefde van het volk
  • Het hart viel binnen, 2013

French

German

Hungarian

Italian

Norwegian

  • Kjærlighetens utposter, 2007

Portuguese

  • O Acto de Amor do Povo, 2006

Romanian

Serbian

  • Narodna deklaracija ljubavi, 2007

Spanish

  • Por amor al pueblo

Swedish

  • Den yttersta kärlekens gulag, 2006

Notes

  1. ^ "Actors Actresses Acting Schools Celebrity Information Fansites About Stars and 4 Star Hotels".
  2. ^ "biography". www.jamesmeek.net. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013.
  3. ISBN 0-099-26848-5
    .
  4. ISBN 0862417317
  5. ^ "The Velvet - Will Christopher Baer, Craig Clevenger and Stephen Graham Jones - Interview: James Meek". welcometothevelvet.com. Archived from the original on 23 November 2011.
  6. doi:10.4000/etudesecossaises.79
    .
  7. ^ "What if There is a God? - Colin Waters". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Aerodrome.co.za".
  9. ^ Dirda, Michael (26 February 2006). "THE PEOPLE'S ACT OF LOVE: A Novel By James Meek". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  10. TheGuardian.com
    .
  11. ^ Wood, Michael (21 July 2005). "Dynamite for Cologne". London Review of Books. 27 (14).
  12. ^ "'The People's Act of Love', by James Meek - Best Fictional Books - Newsweek 2010". Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  13. ^ Renner, Amy (15 December 2006). "The People's Act of Love Movie". Movie Insider.
  14. ISBN 1-84195-654-6
    .
  15. ISBN 1-84195-988-X
    .
  16. ISBN 0-85786-290-1
    .
  17. ^ Meek, James, "With The Invaders", in Granta Issue 83, This Overheating World, 2003.
  18. ^ "Costa Book Awards: 2012 shortlists announced". BBC News. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  19. ^ "Costa Prize 2012: Graphic books take the lead". Daily Telegraph UK. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  20. ^ "IUCN - Past Awards". Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.

External links

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