Lindsay
Clarke

Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in 1939, Lindsay Clarke was the only child of Clara Clarke and Victor Metcalfe Clarke, a stoker in a cotton-mill. He was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax and at King’s College, Cambridge. The landscape of hills, moors and crags around Halifax informed the growth of his imagination, while King’s refined his sensibility and sharpened his intellect. His first novel Sunday Whiteman was shortlisted for the David Higham First Novel Award; his second The Chymical Wedding was awarded the Whitbread Prize for Fiction in 1989; and his latest novel The Water Theatre was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin International Literary Award. His novels have been translated into many languages, and in 2014 he was awarded a Civil List Pension in recognition of his services to literature.