About
Alan Hollinghurst is a British writer born in 1954 in Stroud, England. After studying at Oxford, he worked at the Times Literary Supplement from 1982 to 1995. His first novel, The Swimming-Pool Library (1988), won the Somerset Maugham Award. He is known for his novels exploring gay life and English society, including The Line of Beauty, which won the Booker Prize in 2004. He has also translated plays by Racine. Knighted in 2024, he received the David Cohen Prize in 2025 for lifetime achievement.
* 1954-05-26
Major works
- The Swimming-Pool Library (1988)novel
- The Folding Star (1994)novel
- The Line of Beauty (2004)novel
- The Stranger's Child (2011)novel
- The Sparsholt Affair (2017)novel
Key milestones
- 1974Won the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Oxford.
- 2004The Line of Beauty won the Man Booker Prize.
- 2025Awarded the David Cohen Prize for lifetime achievement.
Themes
Gay life and male desireSocial class and English societyHistory and memoryArt and literatureTime and aging
Sources: rsliterature.org · thebookerprizes.com · newwritingnorth.com