Philip Marsden

Philip Marsden-Smedley (born 11 May 1961), known professionally as Philip Marsden is an English writer who has written in several different genres - travel writing, nature writing, history and fiction. His work has been translated into more than fifteen languages.

Born in Bristol, England, Marsden has a degree in anthropology and worked for some years for The Spectator magazine. He became a full-time writer in the late 1980s. He was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature in 1996.

A review of his work by Guy Mannes-Abbott appeared in The Independent newspaper in November 2007.

He lives in Cornwall with his wife, the writer Charlotte Hobson (daughter of Anthony Hobson), and their children.

Marsden's maternal grandfather was Sir James Granville le Neve King of Campsie, 3rd Baronet of the King baronetcy of Campsie in the County of Stirling. Marsden is a first cousin of the current Baronet, Sir James Rupert King of Campsie, 5th Baronet.

Marsden is descended from John Smedley, founder of the eponymous luxury clothing brand which has remained a family business since 1794.

Awards and honours

Selected publications

Historical and travel writing

  • A Far Country: travels in Ethiopia, Century, 1990, ISBN 0-7126-2566-6
  • The Crossing Place: a journey among the Armenians, HarperCollins, 1993, ISBN 0-00-215878-7 (Somerset Maugham Award in 1994). This book is being currently translated into Spanish thanks to an Artist Residency granted by the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and the Mexican National Fund for Culture and the Arts.
  • The Bronski House: a return to the Borderlands, HarperCollins, 1995, ISBN 0-00-255630-8 – "a story of multi-generational Polish exile involving Zofia Ilinska, friend, neighbour and poet"
  • The Spirit-Wrestlers: a Russian journey, HarperCollins, 1998 (Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 1999)
  • The Chains of Heaven: An Ethiopian Romance, HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 0-00-717347-4
  • The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy, HarperPress, 2007, ISBN 0-00-717345-8 (A life of Tewodros II).
  • The Levelling Sea: The Story of a Cornish Haven in the Age of Sail, HarperPress, 2011, ISBN 978-0-00-717453-9
  • Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place, Granta, 2014, ISBN 978-1847086280
  • The Summer Isles: A Voyage Of The Imagination, Granta, 2019, ISBN 978-1783782994
  • Under a Metal Sky: A Journey through Minerals, Greed and Wonder, Granta 2025

Novels

Spectator anthologies

  • Views from Abroad: the Spectator book of travel writing, edited by Philip Marsden-Smedley and Jeffrey Klinke, London: Grafton, 1988, ISBN 0-586-08896-2
  • Articles of War: the Spectator book of World War II, edited by Fiona Glass and Philip Marsden-Smedley, London: Grafton, 1989, ISBN 0-246-13394-5
  • Britain in the Eighties: the Spectator’s view of the Thatcher decade, edited by Philip Marsden-Smedley, Grafton, 1989, ISBN 0-246-13395-3

References

  1. ↑ Date of birth previously cited wrongly as 5 November, possibly a transatlantic misinterpretation of 5/11/61.
  2. ↑ Allston Mitchell, "Interview with Philip Marsden", "The Global Dispatches...", 10 October 2012.
  3. ↑ Philip Marsden page at The Spectator.
  4. ↑ "Marsden, Philip". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 Guy Mannes-Abbott, "Philip Marsden: Journeying among people: Philip Marsden's books have shone a light into the hidden corners of Ethiopian history. Guy Mannes-Abbott is touched by his great affection for the nation", The Independent, 23 November 2007.
  6. ↑ "Cornish authors' favourite writing spots", The Valley, Cornwall, 21 November 2015.
  7. ↑ Biographical summary in Ms Hobson's 2016 novel, The Vanishing Futurist.
  8. ↑ "Home". The British Academy. Retrieved 29 March 2026.
  9. 1 2 Mosley, Charles (2003). Burke's Peerage, baronetage and knightage: clan chiefs Scottish feudal barons (107 th ed.). Stokesley: Burke's Peerage and Gentry. ISBN 978-0-9711966-2-9.
  10. ↑ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's peerage, baronetage & knightage: clan chiefs, Scottish feudal barons. Stokesley: Burke's Peerage & Gentry. ISBN 978-0-9711966-2-9.
  11. ↑ "Somerset Maugham Awards". scaruffi.com.
  12. ↑ "Book awards: Thomas Cook Travel Book Award", Library Thing.
  13. ↑ "Philip Marsden FRSL – Honorary Fellow", Falmouth University.
  14. ↑ "Holyer an Gof". gorsedhkernow.org.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
  15. ↑ eCampus blurb: "More than half a century after fleeing the Russians and Nazis, the poet Zofia Ilinska, nee Bronski, went back to the little village of her birth, which was then in Poland but now is part of Belarus. Accompanied by her friend, the travel writer and author Philip Marsden, she was looking for her home, though hoping to find much more -- a key to her childhood, and to her family. Marsden narrates the story of Zofia's return movingly but without sentimentality. And when she gives him her mother's diary, and letters, he begins to peel away the layers of Bronski history. From Zofia's journey we move back in time to the beautiful, courageous Helena, Zofia's mother, whose own family had had to uproot itself during the catastrophic events of 1914. From this chronicle of lost times and displaced souls emerges a passionate, magnificent epic of mother and daughter, a stirring elegy for the worlds that our century has left behind, and an unforgettable testament to love's power to reconstruct and forgive."
  16. ↑ Aida Edemariam, "Highlands in the heart: Aida Edemariam on Philip Marsden's love song to Ethiopia, The Chains of Heaven" (review), The Guardian, 31 December 2005.
  17. ↑ Robert Collins, "The Barefoot Emperor by Philip Marsden" (review), The Observer, 24 August 2008.
  18. ↑ Aida Edemariam, "Birth of an empire: Aida Edemariam is moved by Philip Marsden's vivid exploration of the founding of Ethiopia, The Barefoot Emperor" (review), The Guardian, 12 January 2008.
  19. ↑ Marsden, Philip (2025). Under a metal sky: a journey through minerals, greed and wonder. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-78378-962-7.
  20. ↑ Jonathan Heawood, "When Cornwall was another country: Philip Marsden paints mostly in black and white in his first novel, The Main Cages" (review), The Observer, 28 July 2002.