Michael Arditti

Michael Arditti is an English writer. He has written eight novels to date, including Easter, The Enemy of the Good, Jubilate and The Breath of Night. He has also written a collection of short stories, Good Clean Fun, is a prolific literary critic and an occasional broadcaster for the BBC. Much of his work has explored issues of spirituality and sexuality, and he has been described by Philip Pullman as ‘Our best chronicler of the rewards and pitfalls of present day faith’.

Biography

Michael Arditti was born in Cheshire and educated at Rydal School and Jesus College, Cambridge. In his early career, he wrote plays for the stage and the radio and was a theatre critic for the London Evening Standard. He has written book reviews for several British papers and periodicals, including the Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Times. He is currently the theatre critic of the Sunday Express.

His novel Easter won the Waterstone’s Mardi Gras award and his other novels have been shortlisted and longlisted for various awards. He was a Harold Hyam Wingate Scholar in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow in 2001 and the Leverhulme artist in residence at the Freud Museum in 2008. He won an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial award in 2003, and Arts Council awards in 2004 and 2007.

He was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester in 2013.

Works

Novels

• The Celibate (1993)
• Pagan and her Parents (1997) US title Pagan's Father
• Easter (2000)
• Unity (2005)
• A Sea Change (2006)
• The Enemy of the Good (2009)
• Jubilate (2011)
• The Breath of Night (2013)

Short Stories

• Good Clean Fun (2004) collection
• The Loyal Wife in The Gay Times Book of Short Stories, ed P-P Hartnett (2000)
• In The Event of in When It Changed, ed Geoff Ryman (2009)

Stage plays

• The Volunteer, the National Youth Theatre at the Shaw (1980)
• The Freshman, National Student Theatre Company (1984)
• The Ceremony of Innocence, Liverpool Playhouse (1989)

Radio plays

• Something To Scare Off The Birds, Radio Four Monday play (1985)
• The Morning Room, Radio Four (1985)
• The Chatelaine, Radio Four Monday play (1987)
• The Family Hotel, Radio Four Monday play (1991)

External links

• http://www.michaelarditti.com
• http://www.newcultureforum.org.uk/home/?q=node/694
• http://www.theinterviewonline.co.uk/library/books/michael-arditti-interview---jubilate.aspx
• http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/michael-arditti-a-seriously-startling-novelist-496277.html
• http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/michael_arditti
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10209126/Michael-Arditti-interview.html
• http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2013/08/21/an-author-with-an-outsiders-view-of-catholicism/