Giles Foden

Giles Foden was born in Warwickshire in 1967 but grew up mostly in Africa. After taking an English Literature degree, he was Harper-Wood Student in Creative Writing at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1993 he became assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Between 1996 and 2006 he worked on the books pages of the Guardian, during which period he published his debut novel The Last King of Scotland, which won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award. He is author of three other novels — Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence — and a work of narrative non-fiction, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth. In 2006 Foden was awarded an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2007, the Oscar-winning film of The Last King of Scotland was released.

Giles Foden is a Professor of Creative Writing. He was the Harper-Wood Student in Creative Writing at St John’s College, Cambridge, and in 1993 became assistant editor of the TLS.  Between 1996 and 2006 he worked on the books pages of the Guardian, during which period he published The Last King of Scotland, which won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award and was released as an Oscar-winning film in 2007.  He is the author of three other novels – Ladysmith, Zanzibar, and most recently Turbulence – and a work of narrative non-fiction, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth.  He was one of the judges of the MAN Booker Prize for Fiction in 2007.