Louis de Bernières
Louis de Bernières | |
|---|---|
 De Bernières at the 2006 Humber Mouth festival | |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1990- |
Louis de Bernières (born London, UK on 8 December 1954) is a British novelist most famous for his book Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine.[1] His fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book.[2] It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year.[3] It has been translated into over 11 languages and is an international bestseller.
On 16 July 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the De Montfort University in Leicester, which he had previously attended when it was known as Leicester Polytechnic.
Biography
Louis H P de Bernière-Smart was born near Woolwich and grew up in Surrey, the first part of his surname being inherited from a French Huguenot forefather. He was educated at Bradfield College and joined the army when he was 18, but left after four months of service at Sandhurst. He attended the Victoria University of Manchester and the Institute of Education, University of London. Before he began to write full-time he held a wide variety of jobs, including being a mechanic, a motorcycle messenger and an English teacher in Colombia. He now lives near Bungay in Suffolk with his partner and two children.[4]
Books
His Latin American trilogy
It was his experiences in Colombia (as well as the influence of writer Gabriel García Márquez, describing himself as a 'Márquez parasite') that, he says, profoundly influenced his first three novels, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990), Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991) and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992).
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
De Bernières' most famous book is his fourth, Captain Corelli's Mandolin (also published under the alternative title "Corelli's Mandolin") in which the eponymous hero is an Italian soldier who is part of the occupying force on a Greek island during the Second World War.
In 2001 the book was turned into a film, also titled Captain Corelli's Mandolin. De Bernières strongly disapproved of the film version, commenting "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy about its baby's ears being put on backwards."
Since the release of the book and the movie Cephalonia, the island on which the book is set, has become a major tourist destination; and as a result the tourist industry on the island has begun to capitalise on the book's name. Of this, de Bernières said: "I was very displeased to see that a bar in Agia Efimia has abandoned its perfectly good Greek name and renamed itself Captain Corelli's, and I dread the idea that sooner or later there might be Captain Corelli Tours, or Pelagia Apartments."
Red Dog
His book Red Dog (2002) was inspired by a statue of a dog he saw during a visit to the Pilbara region of Western Australia. [5]
Birds Without Wings
Birds Without Wings (2004) is set in Turkey, and portrays the people in a small village toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Kemal Atatürk, and the outbreak of the First World War.
A Partisan's Daughter
A Partisan's Daughter (2008) tells of the relationship between a young Yugoslavian woman and a middle-aged English man around the time of Tito's demise.
Bibliography
Novels
- The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990)
- Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991)
- The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992)
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1993)
- Red Dog (2002)
- Birds Without Wings (2004)
- A Partisan's Daughter (2008)
- Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village (2009)
Short stories
- Labels (1993)
- A Day out for Mehmet Erbil (1999)
- Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World (play for voices) (2001)
References
External links
- ITV Local Anglia's interview with Louis de Bernières May 2008
- Template:Contemporary writers
- Louis de Bernieres own web site
- At home with Louis de Bernieres interview with The Times.
- Louis de Bernières: 'Having a book made into a film is like losing your virginity' - Features, Books - The Independent