Francis Spufford – författare

A spell-binding fantasy novel set in the Blitz, from the author of Golden Hill.'What a joy! A novel with endless ingenuity and enormous heart.' Kaliane Bradley'Everything that great literature should be.' Sarah Perry 'His Dark Materials meets the Blitz.' Observer'An all-encompassing masterpiece.' London Standard'My god can he write.' Richard Osman'Ripples with literary magic.' The Times It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit.What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand.And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.Nonesuch was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 28/2/2026.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW 'Passionate, challenging, tumultuously articulate . . . Fascinating.' John Carey, Sunday Times'A wonderful, effortlessly brilliant book.' Evening Standard'A rare gem, a book that carries conviction by being honest all the way through.' John Gray, IndependentUnapologetic is a book for those curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century.But it isn't an argument that Christianity is true - because how could anyone know that (or indeed its opposite)?It's an argument that Christianity is recognisable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the bits of our lives advertising agencies prefer to ignore.

An irresistible collection of favorite writings from an author celebrated for his bravura style and sheer unpredictabilityFrancis Spufford’s welcome first volume of collected essays gathers an array of his compelling writings from the 1990s to the present. He makes use of a variety of encounters with particular places, writers, or books to address deeper questions relating to the complicated relationship between story-telling and truth-telling. How must a nonfiction writer imagine facts, vivifying them to bring them to life? How must a novelist create a dependable world of story, within which facts are, in fact, imaginary? And how does a religious faith felt strongly to be true, but not provably so, draw on both kinds of writerly imagination?  Ranging freely across topics as diverse as the medieval legends of Cockaigne, the Christian apologetics of C. S. Lewis, and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, Spufford provides both fresh observations and thought-provoking insights. No less does he inspire an irresistible urge to turn the page and read on.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers.Backroom Boys is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars.'A wonderful accomplishment - Backroom Boys sharply evokes a lost world of Dan Dare, Look and Learn and Meccano, and goes on to show us how that world was never lost: that it is, in fact, the secret history of today.' Ken MacLeod'Unreservedly marvellous . . . Francis Spufford is the Tom Wolfe of technology journalism.' Focus'Provides start-to-finish enjoyment . . . [Spufford] can make the heart leap simply by detailing what engineers do with mild steel or carbon fibre.' Sunday Times'I don't want to pretend that Backroom Boys is perfect; It's just as near to it as makes no difference.' Daily Telegraph'The man writes like a dream - informed, fresh, racy prose . . .You wouldn't think that a book describing the fall and rise of British technologies since 1945 could be unputdownable, but Spufford shows it can be done.' Guardian

'Best book of the century.' Richard Osman'Just wonderful.' Jan Morris'A marvel.' Zadie Smith 'Every bit as superb as everyone says.' Sarah PerryWinner of the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 25 NOVELS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYOVER 100k COPIES SOLD New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger fresh off the boat from England pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition -- he has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted? This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble . . .

** ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD NOW **'Bizarre and quite brilliant.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times'Thrilling.' Michael Burleigh, Sunday Telegraph'Francis Spufford has one of the most original minds in contemporary literature.' Nick HornbyWhat would have happened if the Soviet 'miracle' had worked, and the communists had discovered the secret to prosperity, progress and happiness?The Soviet Union was founded on a fairytale. It was built on 20th-century magic called 'the planned economy', which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the penny-pinching lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working.Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan, every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche and sputniks would lead the way to the stars. And it's about the scientists who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW'Anyone who reads or ever read children's books - read this. It's a joy.' Irish Times'Exhilarating.' New York Times Book Review'Sublime.' Peter Ackroyd, The TimesWhat would you find if you went back and re-read your favourite books from childhood?In The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford revisits all those childhood obsessions: fairy tales; Where the Wild Things Are; The Lord of the Rings; The Chronicles of Narnia; Little House on the Prairie; The Wind in the Willows; The Earthsea Trilogy and more. In these treasured tales Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness - the thrill as worlds of imagination opened up before him mixed with the memories of a boy who retreated into books when faced with a family tragedy.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers.Backroom Boys is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars.'A wonderful accomplishment - Backroom Boys sharply evokes a lost world of Dan Dare, Look and Learn and Meccano, and goes on to show us how that world was never lost: that it is, in fact, the secret history of today.' Ken MacLeod'Unreservedly marvellous . . . Francis Spufford is the Tom Wolfe of technology journalism.' Focus'Provides start-to-finish enjoyment . . . [Spufford] can make the heart leap simply by detailing what engineers do with mild steel or carbon fibre.' Sunday Times'I don't want to pretend that Backroom Boys is perfect; It's just as near to it as makes no difference.' Daily Telegraph'The man writes like a dream - informed, fresh, racy prose . . .You wouldn't think that a book describing the fall and rise of British technologies since 1945 could be unputdownable, but Spufford shows it can be done.' Guardian

ORDER NONESUCH, FRANCIS SPUFFORD'S NEW NOVEL, NOW 'A truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination.' Jan Morris, The Times 'Shot through with crystalline brilliance.' Washington Post 'Fascinating.' Sunday Times When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the national imagination. Everyone remembers the doomed Captain Oates's last words: 'I'm just going outside, and I may be some time.' Francis Spufford's celebrated and prize-winning history shows how Scott's death was the culmination of a national enchantment with vast empty spaces, the beauty of untrodden snow, and perilous journeys to the end of the earth.Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Banff Mountain Book Prize.

'Bizarre and quite brilliant.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times'Thrilling.' Michael Burleigh, Sunday Telegraph'Francis Spufford has one of the most original minds in contemporary literature.' Nick HornbyThe Soviet Union was founded on a fairytale. It was built on 20th-century magic called 'the planned economy', which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the penny-pinching lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working.Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan, every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche and sputniks would lead the way to the stars. And it's about the scientists who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW 'Passionate, challenging, tumultuously articulate . . . Fascinating.' John Carey, Sunday Times'A wonderful, effortlessly brilliant book.' Evening Standard'A rare gem, a book that carries conviction by being honest all the way through.' John Gray, IndependentUnapologetic is a book for those curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century.But it isn't an argument that Christianity is true - because how could anyone know that (or indeed its opposite)?It's an argument that Christianity is recognisable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the bits of our lives advertising agencies prefer to ignore.

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746.One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat pitches up at a counting-house door in Golden Hill Street: this is Mr Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion simmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge amount, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he can be planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money.Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him?An astonishing first novel, as stuffed with incident as a whole shelf of conventional fiction, Golden Hill is both a book about the eighteenth century, and itself a novel cranked back to the form's eighteenth century beginnings, when anything could happen on the page, and usually did, and a hero was not a hero unless he ran the frequent risk of being hanged.Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill has a plot that twists in every chapter, and a puzzle at its heart that won't let go till the last paragraph of the last page.Set a generation before the American Revolution, it paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later self: but subtly shadowed by the great city to come, and already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love - and find a world of trouble.

**Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021****Winner of the RSL Encore Award**From the author of Golden Hill 'My god he can write.' Richard Osman'Glorious.' Evening Standard'Exhilarating.' TLS'Brilliant.' Observer'Dazzling.' The Times'Extraordinary.' Financial Times'Superb.' GuardianNovember 1944. A German rocket strikes London and five young children are atomised in an instant. Here are the futures they might have known, had they experienced the unimaginable changes of the twentieth century - futures that illuminate the miraculous in the everyday, and the preciousness of life itself.

'Dazzling.' The Times'Exceptional.' Guardian'Brilliant.' Observer'Extraordinary.' Financial Times'A miracle.' Wall Street Journal*Winner of the RSL Encore Award**Longlisted for the Booker Prize*November 1944. A German rocket strikes London, and five young lives are atomised in an instant.November 1944. That rocket never lands. A single second in time is altered, and five young lives go on - to experience all the unimaginable changes of the twentieth century.Because maybe there are always other futures. Other chances.From the best-selling, prize-winning author of Golden Hill, Light Perpetual is a story of the everyday, the miraculous and the everlasting. Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, it is a sweeping and intimate celebration of the gift of life.

'Utterly immersive' Spectator'Thrilling' Financial Times'Unlike anything else you will read this year' Daily Express 'A classic of alternative history' Observer'A delight' Sunday TelegraphA Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the bestselling author of Golden Hill.In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. But in this 1922, things are a little different. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth. The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.What readers are saying:***** 'A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly.' ***** 'Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging. What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as Golden Hill, which is praise indeed.' ***** 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.'

A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the best-selling author of Golden Hill.ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW'Utterly immersive.' Spectator'Thrilling.' Financial Times'Unlike anything else you will read this year.' Daily Express'A classic of alternative history.' Observer'A delight.' Sunday TelegraphIt's 1922 and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. In the ancient city of Cahokia - a teeming industrial metropolis, a tinderbox of every race and creed - peace holds. Just about. But on a snowy night at the end of winter, two roughshod detectives are called to the roof of a skyscraper. Their investigation will spill the city's secrets and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets, either to destruction or rebirth.What readers are saying:***** 'A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly.'***** 'Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging. What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as Golden Hill, which is praise indeed.'***** 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.'

A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the best-selling author of Golden Hill.ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW'Utterly immersive.' Spectator'Thrilling.' Financial Times'Unlike anything else you will read this year.' Daily Express'A classic of alternative history.' Observer'A delight.' Sunday TelegraphIt's 1922 and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. In the ancient city of Cahokia - a teeming industrial metropolis, a tinderbox of every race and creed - peace holds. Just about. But on a snowy night at the end of winter, two roughshod detectives are called to the roof of a skyscraper. Their investigation will spill the city's secrets and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets, either to destruction or rebirth.What readers are saying:***** 'A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly.'***** 'Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging. What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as Golden Hill, which is praise indeed.'***** 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.'

ORDER NONESUCH, FRANCIS SPUFFORD'S NEW NOVEL, NOW 'A truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination.' Jan Morris, The Times 'Shot through with crystalline brilliance.' Washington Post 'Fascinating.' Sunday Times When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the national imagination. Everyone remembers the doomed Captain Oates's last words: 'I'm just going outside, and I may be some time.' Francis Spufford's celebrated and prize-winning history shows how Scott's death was the culmination of a national enchantment with vast empty spaces, the beauty of untrodden snow, and perilous journeys to the end of the earth.Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Banff Mountain Book Prize.

ORDER NONESUCH, THE NEW NOVEL FROM FRANCIS SPUFFORD, NOW'Anyone who reads or ever read children's books - read this. It's a joy.' Irish Times'Exhilarating.' New York Times Book Review'Sublime.' Peter Ackroyd, The TimesWhat would you find if you went back and re-read your favourite books from childhood?In The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford revisits all those childhood obsessions: fairy tales; Where the Wild Things Are; The Lord of the Rings; The Chronicles of Narnia; Little House on the Prairie; The Wind in the Willows; The Earthsea Trilogy and more. In these treasured tales Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness - the thrill as worlds of imagination opened up before him mixed with the memories of a boy who retreated into books when faced with a family tragedy.

A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the bestselling author of Golden Hill.In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth.The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.

A spell-binding fantasy novel set in the Blitz, from the author of Golden Hill.'What a joy! A novel with endless ingenuity and enormous heart.' Kaliane Bradley'Everything that great literature should be.' Sarah Perry 'His Dark Materials meets the Blitz.' Observer'An all-encompassing masterpiece.' London Standard'My god can he write.' Richard Osman'Ripples with literary magic.' The Times It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit.What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand.And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.Nonesuch was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 28/2/2026.

** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** A spell-binding fantasy novel set in the Blitz, from the author of Golden Hill.'What a joy! A novel with endless ingenuity and enormous heart.' Kaliane Bradley'Everything that great literature should be.' Sarah Perry 'His Dark Materials meets the Blitz.' Observer'An all-encompassing masterpiece.' London Standard'My god can he write.' Richard Osman'Ripples with literary magic.' The Times It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit.What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit - into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand.And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever.Nonesuch was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 28/2/2026.

A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Fiction Book of 2017 * A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year * A Seattle Times Favorite Book of 2017 * An NPR Best Book of 2017 * A Kirkus Reviews Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year * A Library Journal Top Historical Fiction Book of the Year * Winner of the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize * Winner of the New York City Book Award “Gorgeously crafted…Spufford''s sprawling recreation here is pitch perfect.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air “A fast-paced romp that keeps its eyes on the moral conundrums of America.” —The New Yorker “Delirious storytelling backfilled with this much intelligence is a rare and happy sight.” —The New York Times “Golden Hill possesses a fluency and immediacy, a feast of the senses…I love this book.” —The Washington Post The spectacular first novel from acclaimed nonfiction author Francis Spufford follows the adventures of a mysterious young man in mid-eighteenth century Manhattan, thirty years before the American Revolution.New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won’t explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him? Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill is “a remarkable achievement—remarkable, especially, in its intelligent re-creation of the early years of what was to become America’s greatest city” (The Wall Street Journal). Spufford paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later metropolitan self, but already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love—and find a world of trouble. Golden Hill is “immensely pleasurable…Read it for Spufford’s brilliant storytelling, pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and gift for re-creating a vanished time” (New York Newsday).