Anita Mason

Fellow at Bath Spa University, 1999-2002 Project Fellow, 2002-04 Project Fellow, 2004/05 Fellow at University of Warwick, 2005-09

Anita Mason is a Booker-nominated novelist who currently lives in Bristol.

After reading English at Oxford University, Anita worked in medical publishing, journalism and as a freelance before starting to write fiction, which she regards as a far more serious matter than fact. She has published six novels, of which The Illusionist was shortlisted for the 1983 Booker Prize and The Racket for the Fawcett Prize in 1990. Her novels pursue an interest in history, religion and the compromises imposed by politics. She is at work on her eighth novel, which, like two earlier ones, reflects a growing interest in Latin America. Anita has also written short stories, but prefers the length and scope that is offered by the novel.

Anita Mason was Writer in Residence at Trinity and All Saints' College, Leeds for two years in 1983/4. She has taught on numerous Arvon Foundation and other writing courses, and tutored for the Open College of the Arts. She greatly enjoys the interaction with students who are committed to improving their writing, and hopes to continue working in this field.

Publications
The Yellow Cathedral (Spinsters Ink Books, USA, 2002)
Angel (Hamish Hamilton 1994, Penguin 1994)
The Racket (Constable 1990, Sceptre 1990)
The War against Chaos (Hamish Hamilton 1988, Abacus 1988)
The Illusionist (Hamish Hamilton 1983, Abacus 1983, Penguin 1994)
Bethany (Hamish Hamilton 1981, Penguin 1994)
Short stories in Winter's Tales 6 and 9 (Constable)

Project Fellowship 2002-04
The aim of this Project Fellowship was to involve the people of Frome, a small Somerset market town, in writing and editing a book about their own community and the town's past. This was done through a series of drop-in workshops held once a week at the public library.

Personal stories, reminiscences, tales handed down or invented, plus description, opinion and poetry were part of the mix. The intention was to produce a compilation as lively as possible, a real reflection of the life of the town, while encouraging people who would not normally think of themselves as writers to experiment with writing, and improving what literary skills already existed.

The resulting book, Frome Hundred, was published in July 2004 with the aid of sponsorship from the printers; it sold out and a second edition has now been produced.

Project Fellowship 2004/05
This project was a survey aimed at finding out how the RLF's Fellows got on with their own writing during the period of a Fellowship. Thirty Fellows were interviewed face-to-face in informal conversations based on a 15-point questionnaire. Subjects included how much Fellows, at the start of a Fellowship, had hoped to achieve in their own writing and how much they had achieved; what impact the contact with the institution/students had had on their writing; whether the Fellowship had prevented them from writing anything they planned to write or whether, conversely, it had enabled them to write something they might not otherwise have written; how the RLF scheme compares with other writers' fellowships. The findings (overall, of an extremely positive nature) were presented to the RLF in an 80-page report.

Reviews
Bethany: 'The two women are drawn with a sure hand, and so clearly that we feel we can almost reach out and touch them . . . devastating revelatory analyses find an attentive well reader well prepared, so deep does Ms Mason's characterisation go.'  Bernard Levin, Sunday Times

The Illusionist: 'Very complex, very elliptical, full of paradoxes. It's extremely easy to read the first time, but satisfyingly difficult to follow because of the reinterpretation of historical and Biblical events. Above all, it's extremely funny.' A Good Read, BBC

The Racket: 'Works both as an understated thriller and a psychological journey . . . as refreshing, well-observed and original a novel as any reader could wish for.' Daily Telegraph

Angel: 'An absorbing psychological study of that accommodation of evil which was a widespread German response to war.' Independent on Sunday

Email:

sevenleagues@binternet.com