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Matthew Kneale

マシュー・ニール

Matthew Kneale

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1960-11-24 （London）
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
Barnes, London → Tokyo, Japan → Oxford, United Kingdom → Rome, Italy → Canada (temporary)

Career

Occupations
writer, novelist, non-fiction writer
Active Years
1987-
Memberships
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)
Influenced By
J. G. Farrell, Judith Kerr (mother), Nigel Kneale (father), Alfred Kerr (grandfather)
Nominations
Booker Prize (shortlisted) — English Passengers, Miles Franklin Award (shortlisted) — English Passengers

Education

Latymer Upper School
Country: United Kingdom
Magdalen College, Oxford
Modern History
Country: United Kingdom
Studied modern history

Awards

Somerset Maugham Award
1988
Work: Whore Banquets (later republished as Mr Foreigner)
Organization: Society of Authors
Result: 受賞
Betty Trask Award
1988
Work: Whore Banquets
Organization: Society of Authors
Result: 受賞
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
1993
Work: Sweet Thames
Result: 受賞
Whitbread Book of the Year (now Costa Book Awards)
2000
Work: English Passengers
Category: 年間最優秀書籍賞
Organization: Whitbread/Costa
Result: 受賞
Relay Prix d'Evasion
2001
Work: English Passengers (French translation)
Organization: Relay (France)
Result: 受賞（翻訳版）
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2003
Organization: Royal Society of Literature
Result: 選出

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Whore Banquets

1987 Fiction (novel)

A novel set in Tokyo about an Englishman's affair with a Japanese woman that draws him into the world of organized crime.

cross-cultural encounterscrimepersonal downfall

Inside Rose's Kingdom

1989 Fiction (novel)

A coming-of-age story about a young innocent who moves to London and becomes entangled with a controlling, emotionally complex group.

coming-of-ageurban lifemanipulative relationships

Sweet Thames

1992 Historical fiction

Set in London in 1849, it tells the story of an enlightened drainage engineer whose wife disappears during a cholera epidemic.

industrializationepidemicsocial reform

English Passengers

2000 Historical fiction / multi-voiced novel

A multi-voiced novel that follows a religious-scientific expedition in Tasmania and examines the brutal destruction of Aboriginal culture by settlers and convicts.

imperialismcolonialismreligion vs. sciencemulti-voiced narration
Translations
  • French translation (won Relay Prix d'Evasion)

Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance

2005 Short story collection

A collection of 12 short stories set around the world that examine people's struggles to survive and do the right thing.

moral dilemmasglobal settingssurvival
Adaptations
  • [Film] Une Pure Affaire (film adaptation of 'Powder')

When We Were Romans

2007 Fiction (novel)

Told from the viewpoint of a boy, Laurence, whose mother suddenly decides the family must flee England to Rome, where she lived years before.

familymigrationchild's perspective

Pilgrims

2020 Historical fiction / comic novel

A comic novel set mainly in 1289 about a heterogeneous group who band together on a pilgrimage from England to Rome.

religionjourneymedieval society

The Cameraman

2023 Fiction (novel)

A fictional road journey across Europe to Rome by a cameraman recently released from a mental hospital, set against the rise of Fascism and Nazism.

family dysfunctionpolitical turmoiljourney

An Atheist's History of Belief

2013 Non-fiction

From a fascinated non-believer's perspective, it surveys beliefs devised by people to explain their world from prehistoric times to the present.

history of religionbelief and society

Rome: A History in Seven Sackings

2017 Non-fiction (history)

A social and cultural history of Rome traced through seven sackings across the centuries.

urban historysackings and recoverycultural history

The Rome Plague Diaries: Lockdown Life in the Eternal City

2021 Non-fiction (memoir/essays)

A non-fiction account of life during the COVID-19 lockdown in Rome (March–May 2020), extending into a memoir of two decades living in the city and including some recipes.

pandemicurban lifememoir

Bibliography

  • Whore Banquets (1987)
  • Inside Rose's Kingdom (1989)
  • Sweet Thames (1992)
  • English Passengers (2000)
  • Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance (2005)
  • Powder (2006)
  • When We Were Romans (2007)
  • An Atheist's History of Belief (2013)
  • Rome: A History in Seven Sackings (2017)
  • Pilgrims (2020)
  • The Rome Plague Diaries: Lockdown Life in the Eternal City (2021)
  • The Cameraman (2023)

Adaptations

  • 'Powder' (short story) adapted into the French feature film 'Une Pure Affaire'

Translations of Works

  • English Passengers — French translation (won Relay Prix d'Evasion)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
multi-voiced narrationhistorically grounded storytellinghumorous and satirical tone
Recurring Motifs
empire and colonialismjourney and movementconflict between religion and sciencecross-cultural friction

Legacy

Matthew Kneale is internationally recognised for his multi-voiced, historically informed novels that examine empire, colonialism and cultural encounters. English Passengers won major awards and received acclaim in translation.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature

Quotes

  • I particularly admired J. G. Farrell — a writer who 'wrote about the British Empire – and scathingly – back in the 1970s, when few in Britain wanted to think about the uglier parts of their country's past.'
    Source: RTÉ interview (2001) (2001)

Trivia

  • He is the son of children's author Judith Kerr and screenwriter Nigel Kneale.
  • He is the grandson of Alfred Kerr, a German critic who fled Nazi Germany.
  • Early work was influenced by his time in Japan, where he taught English.
  • Won the Somerset Maugham Award and Betty Trask Award in 1988 for Whore Banquets.
  • English Passengers won the Whitbread Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.