Rose Tremain

Dame
Rose Tremain
DBE FRSL
Born
Rosemary Jane Thomson

(1943-08-02) 2 August 1943 (age 83)
London, England
EducationSorbonne
University of East Anglia (BA)
OccupationNovelist
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Notable awardsOrange Prize (2008)
Whitbread Award (1999)
Prix Femina Étranger (1994)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1992)
Sunday Express Book of the Year (1989)
Giles Cooper Award (1984)

Dame Rosemary Jane Tremain (née Thomson; born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. She has been the recipient of many prizes for her writing, including the Giles Cooper Award (1984), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1992), the Whitbread Award (1999) and the Orange Prize (2008).

Personal life

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

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

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, of whom she met on a writer's tour of Adelaide, Australia. She lives in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich in Norfolk.

In 2019 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and had a whipple operation performed at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Tremain recovered well, and stated that the diagnosis and subsequent recovery influenced her future works, including her 2021 novel Lily: A tale of revenge.

Writing

Tremain was one of 20 writers featured in Granta's first 'Best of Young British Novelists' list published in 1983, alongside other now-esteemed writers including Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie.

Tremain's influences include William Golding and Lord of the Flies as well as Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude and the magical realism style. Her historical novels have been described as approaching her subjects "from unexpected angles, concentrating her attention on unglamorous outsiders".

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.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983. 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.

Awards and honours

Selected publications

Novels

Short story collections

Children's books

Memoir

References

  1. ↑ "Writer is new university chancellor". BBC News. 14 April 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Tremain, Dame Rose, (born 2 Aug. 1943), novelist and playwright". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U38001. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 2 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  3. ↑ "Thomson, William (1819–1890), archbishop of York". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27330. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  4. 1 2 3 Rustin, Susanna (10 May 2003). "Costume dramatist". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ "Novelist Rose Tremain appointed as new UEA chancellor". BBC News. 14 April 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Greenstreet, Rosanna (23 April 2022). "Rose Tremain: 'My father I hardly knew and my mother hardly bothered to get to know me'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
  7. ↑ Tremain, Rose (2002). Sacred country. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-942203-7.
  8. ↑ Tonkin, Boyd (5 March 2010). "Journeys home: Rose Tremain reflects on the past and her present life writing in the south of France". The Independent. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Parkin, Simon (3 March 2020). "Norfolk novelist Rose Tremain receives damehood from Queen". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  10. ↑ Haider, Arwa (15 November 2021). "How a brush with death helped inspire Rose Tremain's new novel". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Tremain, Rose (25 September 2026). "'My generation of novelists is dying': Rose Tremain on 70 years of writing, and late-life inspiration". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Kingston, Tom (17 November 2010). "Rose Tremain | Interview". Granta. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Rennison, Nick (28 June 2009). "Ox Tales: Air, Earth, Fire and Water". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 25 October 2026.
  14. ↑ "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N8.
  15. ↑ "Briefly Noted". The New Yorker. 12 August 1985. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 25 October 2026.
  16. ↑ Best radio plays of 1984 : the Giles Cooper Award winners. London: Methuen. 1985. ISBN 978-0-413-58430-4.
  17. ↑ "1989". The Man Booker Prizes. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  18. ↑ Aspden, Peter (5 June 2008). "Tremain novel on plight of a migrant wins Orange prize". Irish Times.
  19. ↑ Williams, Charlotte (15 October 2012). "Random House gets four nods for Wellcome Trust Book Prize". The Bookseller.
  20. ↑ Lee, Richard (17 May 2013). "Walter Scott Prize 2013: Using the Language of the Dead". Historical Novel Society. Retrieved 25 October 2026.
  21. ↑ "Past Winners – Fiction". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  22. ↑ Cain, Sian (22 November 2016). "Costa book award 2016 shortlists dominated by female writers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  23. ↑ Kean, Danuta (8 March 2017). "Baileys women's prize 2017 longlist sees established names eclipse debuts". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 October 2026.
  24. ↑ "Rose Tremain's 'Gustav Sonata' wins Ribalow Prize for Jewish fiction". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  25. ↑ "Walter Scott Prize 2024 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 2 May 2024. Retrieved 10 May 2024.