Tim Parks

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Biography

Tim Parks was born in Manchester, England in 1954, spent his adolescence in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. In 1981 he and his Italian wife moved to Verona in northern Italy where he still lives today. He teaches literary translation at IULM University Milan and has written about provincial life in the Veneto in Italian Neighbours (1992) and An Italian Education (1996). He has translated works by several Italian writers, including Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi and Roberto Calasso. He has twice won the John Florio Prize for translation.

His many novels include Tongues of Flame (1985), which won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Betty Trask Prize; Loving Roger (1986), winner of the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; Cara Massimina (1990), adapted for the screen by Dennis Potter; Europa (1997), a black comedy centred on the European Parliament that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; and, most recently, Destiny (1999), the story of an English journalist in Italy, who, on a visit to England, hears tragic news that sparks off three days of intense and painful melodrama.

Tim Parks' many essays and occasional stories, mostly published in the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books are collected in Adultery and Other Diversions (1998) and Hell and Back: Essays (2001). A third collection of essays, The Fighter, was published in 2007. A Season with Verona (2002), is at once a vivid account of a season spent following the Italian football club Hellas Verona and an extended essay on the joys and perils of collective illusion. Judge Savage (2003), is the story of Crown Court Judge, Daniel Savage, who, even as he presides over the fate of others, is witnessing his own life unravel.

In 2005, Tim Parks published Rapids: A Novel (2005); Medici Money (2005), a new history of the Medici family; and a new collection of short fiction, Talking About It (2005). His latest novel is Dreams of Rivers and Seas (2008).

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Essays, Fiction, Non-fiction, Short stories, Translation

Bibliography

Tongues of Flame   Heinemann, 1985

Loving Roger   Heinemann, 1986

Home Thoughts   Collins, 1987

Family Planning   Collins, 1989

Cara Massimina   (as John MacDowell)   Hodder & Stoughton, 1990

Goodness   Heinemann, 1991

Sweet Days of Discipline / Fleur Jaeggy   (translator)   Heinemann, 1991

Italian Neighbours   Heinemann, 1992

Shear   Heinemann, 1993

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony / Roberto Calasso   (translator)   Cape, 1993

The Road to San Giovanni / Italo Calvino   (translator)   Cape, 1993

Mimi's Ghost   Secker & Warburg, 1994

An Italian Education   Secker & Warburg, 1996

Europa   Secker & Warburg, 1997

Translating Style   Cassell, 1997

Adultery and other Diversions   Secker & Warburg, 1998

Destiny   Secker & Warburg, 1999

Hell and Back: Essays   Secker & Warburg, 2001

A Season with Verona   Secker & Warburg, 2002

Judge Savage   Secker & Warburg, 2003

Medici Money   Profile Books, 2005

Rapids: A Novel   Secker & Warburg, 2005

Talking About It   Hesperus Press, 2005

Cleaver   Secker & Warburg, 2006

The Fighter: Literary Essays   Secker & Warburg, 2007

Dreams of Rivers and Seas   Secker & Warburg, 2008

Read about books by Tim Parks at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Tim Parks at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

1986   Betty Trask Prize   Tongues of Flame

1986   Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize   Loving Roger

1986   Somerset Maugham Award   Tongues of Flame

1991   John Florio Prize   (translation)   Sweet Days of Discipline / Fleur Jaeggy

1993   Italo Calvino Prize   (translation)   The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony / Roberto Calasso

1993   John Florio Prize   (translation)   The Road to San Giovanni / Italo Calvino

1997   Booker Prize for Fiction   (shortlist)   Europa

2002   William Hill Sports Book of the Year   (shortlist)   A Season with Verona

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Further reading on this site

Walberberg Seminar
The Walberberg Seminar is the British Council's largest and longest running annual literature seminar overseas. The most recent Walberberg Seminar was held in January 2009 at Akademie Schmockwitz, Berlin on... more...   (15/12/2004)

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) Secker & Warburg Ltd Random House Group Ltd 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road London  SW1V 2SA England Tel: +44 (0)20 7840 8545 Fax: +44 (0)20 7233 6117 http://www.randomhouse.co.uk

Agent Antony Harwood Ltd 103 Walton Street Oxford  OX2 6EB England Tel: +44 (0)1865 559 615 Fax: +44 (0)1865 310 660 E-mail: mail@antonyharwood.com http://www.antonyharwood.com

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Related links

http:/ / www.timparks.com

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