Rose Tremain

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, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1992), the Whitbread Award (1999) and the Orange Prize (2008).

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. She lives in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich in Norfolk.

Writing 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.

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

Awards and honours 1984: Dylan Thomas Prize 1992: James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Sacred Country 2012: Wellcome Book Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time 2013: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time 2016: National Jewish Book Award for The Gustav Sonata 2016: Costa Book Awards (novel), shortlist, The Gustav Sonata 2017: Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, longlist, The Gustav Sonata 2017: Ribalow Prize for The Gustav Sonata 2024: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, Absolutely and Forever

Selected bibliography

Novels Sadler's Birthday (1976), Letter to Sister Benedicta (1978), The Cupboard (1981), Journey to the Volcano (1985), The Swimming Pool Season (1985), Restoration (1989), Sacred Country (1992), The Way I Found Her (1997), Music and Silence (1999), The Colour (2003), The Road Home (2008), Trespass (2010 W.W. Norton), Merivel: A Man of His Time (2012), The Gustav Sonata (2016), Islands of Mercy (2020), Lily: A Tale of Revenge (2021), Absolutely & Forever (2023),

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)