- Sid Smith (writer)
Sid Smith (born c.
1949 ) is an award-winning Englishnovelist andjournalist .Life and career
Smith was born in
Preston ,Lancashire . For seven years he worked in labouring jobs, including dustman,gravedigger and construction worker. Since then he has hitch-hiked 9,000 miles around the US, lived inItaly andGreece , acquired a pilot's licence for paragliders, and been married with full Shintorite s at a shrine in SouthernJapan . According to the "Times Literary Supplement " he is "one of Britain's most challenging and original novelists".Fact|date=April 2007Smith came late to literary prominence. He had been a journalist for 17 years, including two years as a
sub-editor on "The Times ", and was already in his 50s when his debut novel "Something Like A House" was published in2001 . The tale of a British deserter inChina at the time of theCultural Revolution , "Something Like A House" won critical praise and went on to win both the James Tait Black Award and the Whitbread First Novel Award. What was remarkable about the book was its meticulous evocation of time and place, especially since Smith had never been to China and had written the book entirely from his own research, conducted among other places in theBritish Library . Smith says that his only previous contact with China had been a "one-hour stopover atHong Kong airport" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1740811.stm] . He claims that "the only ticket you need is a library ticket" [http://www.bl.uk/about/annual/arcasestudies.html] . However, his novels portray the gritty details of manual labour, about which he may claim to be knowledgeable. He is possibly the only Whitbread winner with a conviction foractual bodily harm .Smith's second novel "A House by the River" (
2003 ) was another adventure story set in China. His third, "China Dreams" (2007 ), has the apparently autobiographical theme of a Londoner who is obsessed with China but has never been there.Smith lives in
Islington in north London.Notable works
* "Something Like A House", 2001
* "A House by the River", 2003
* "China Dreams", 2007External links
* [http://www.sidsmith.co.uk Sid Smith's website: unpublished fiction, extracts from novels]
* [http://www.panmacmillan.com/Authors%20Illustrators/displayPage.asp?PageTitle=Individual%20Contributor&ContributorID=70180&RLE=Author Sid Smith - profile at Pan MacMillan]
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