Rose Tremain

Tremain was born on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and Keith Nicholas Home Thomson.^[2] Her paternal great-grandfather is William Thomson, who was Archbishop of York from 1862 to 1890.^[3]

She was educated at Francis Holland School, Crofton Grange School, the Sorbonne (1961–1962) and the University of East Anglia (BA, English Literature).^[4] She later went on to teach creative writing at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1995, and was appointed Chancellor in 2013.^[5]

She married Jon Tremain in 1971 and they had one daughter. The marriage lasted about five years. Her second marriage, to theatre director Jonathan Dudley, in 1982, lasted about nine years; and she has been in a relationship with Richard Holmes since 1992.^[6] She lives in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich in Norfolk.^[7][8][9]

Tremain's influences include William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, and Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude and the magical realism style.^[6]

She is a historical novelist who approaches her subjects "from unexpected angles, concentrating her attention on unglamorous outsiders".^[4]

In 2009, she donated the short story The Jester of Astapovo to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Earth" collection.^[10]

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983.^[2] Already Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Tremain was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to writing.^[11]

• 1984: Dylan Thomas Prize^[2]
• 1984: Giles Cooper Award, Temporary Shelter (play)
• 1989: Sunday Express Book of the Year, Restoration^[2]
• 1989: Booker Prize, shortlist, Restoration^[12]
• 1992: James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Sacred Country^[2]
• 1994: Prix Femina Étranger, Sacred Country^[2]
• 1999: Whitbread Award, Music and Silence^[2]
• 2008: Orange Prize, The Road Home^[13]
• 2012: Wellcome Book Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time^[14]
• 2013: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time^[15][16]
• 2016: National Jewish Book Award for The Gustav Sonata^[17]
• 2016: Costa Book Awards (novel), shortlist, The Gustav Sonata^[18]
• 2017: Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, longlist, The Gustav Sonata^[19]
• 2017: Ribalow Prize for The Gustav Sonata^[20]
• 2024: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, Absolutely and Forever^[21]

Novels

• Sadler's Birthday (1976), ISBN 0-356-08387-X
• Letter to Sister Benedicta (1978), ISBN 0-354-04353-6
• The Cupboard (1981), ISBN 0-354-04769-8
• Journey to the Volcano (1985), ISBN 0-241-11651-1
• The Swimming Pool Season (1985), ISBN 0-241-11496-9
• Restoration (1989), ISBN 0-241-12695-9
• Sacred Country (1992), ISBN 1-85619-118-4
• The Way I Found Her (1997), ISBN 1-85619-409-4
• Music and Silence (1999), ISBN 1-86056-027-X
• The Colour (2003), ISBN 0-7011-7296-7
• The Road Home (2008), ISBN 978-0-09-947846-1
• Trespass (2010 W.W. Norton), ISBN 978-0-099-47845-4
• Merivel: A Man of His Time (2012), ISBN 978-0701185206
• The Gustav Sonata (2016), ISBN 9781784740030
• Islands of Mercy (2020), ISBN 9781784743314
• Lily: A Tale of Revenge (2021), ISBN 9781784744564
• Absolutely & Forever (2023), ISBN 978-1784745202

Collections of short stories

• The Colonel's Daughter and other stories (1983)
• The Garden of the Villa Mollini and other stories (1987)
• Evangelista's Fan and Other Stories (1994)
• The Darkness of Wallis Simpson and other stories (2006)
• The American Lover (2014)

For children

• Journey to the Volcano (1985)

Memoir

• Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life (2018)