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2005 - The Winner
Like a Fiery Elephant:
The Story of B.S. Johnson
B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known young novelists
in Britain in the 1960s and 70s. He gained notoriety
for his forthright views on the future of the novel and for
his idiosyncratic ways of putting them into practice. His
innovations included a book with holes cut through the pages,
and a novel published in a box so that its unbound chapters
could be read in any order. But in November 1973 Johnson's
lifelong depression got the better of him, and he was found
dead at his north London home. He had taken his own
life at the age of forty.
Jonathan Coe's long-awaited biography is based upon unique
access to the vast collection of papers Johnson left behind,
and upon dozens of interviews with those who knew him best.
'After I had finished reading Like a Fiery Elephant,
I was so paralysed with admiration I wondered whether I
would actually be able to write a review... so wonderful,
so compelling, so finger-tingingly exciting. There
is almost too much to say... Above all, it is Coe's determination
to do right by Johnson that makes Like a Fiery Elephant
so special. It is a book about a man who really cares
about novels, by a man who really cares about novels. If
you care too, you will rush out and buy it.' Observer
Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. An award-winning
novelist, biographer and critic, his novels include What
a Carve Up! which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, The House
of Sleep which won the Writers' Guild Best
Fiction Award and The Closed Circle. He
was recently made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres. Jonathan Coe lives in London.
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