Mark Hudson

Fellow at University of North London (now London Metropolitan University), 2001/02 Project Fellow, 2003/04

Mark Hudson’s first book, Our Grandmothers' Drums, describing a year spent in a remote Gambian village, won the Thomas Cook Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. His second, Coming Back Brockens, on a former mining village in Durham, won the NCR Award for the best non-fiction book of 1994. His novel The Music in my Head was published to critical acclaim in 1998.

Mark Hudson has contributed to the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Observer, Mail on Sunday and many other publications. He lives in London with his wife and daughter, and is currently working on a novel.

Project Fellowship
For his Project Fellowship, Mark has become Writer in Residence at the Screenwriters Writers Workshop. This involves giving one-to-one sessions on members' work in progress. There was an apparent need from SW members for informed but balanced feedback that did not cost an arm and a leg. There has been a high take-up on the project, with scripts submitted varying wildly in form, content and level of completeness. While some of the writers are relatively inexperienced, it has been encouraging to see that the project also has something to offer to writers with proven track records. Levels of commitment are high across the board, and feedback from people who have taken part has been very positive. The sessions are free to SW members. 

Reviews
Our Grandmothers' Drums
'I have rarely read a book of greater passion or honesty. It is full of dark moods and chaotic exhilaration.' Roger Clarke, Sunday Times

'A wonderful book. Reading it is like watching a picture being painted. A moving, even a majestic book.' The Listener

'Mr Hudson writes beautifully, he is intelligent, sensitive and observant as well as being a natural storyteller.' Patrick Pender Cudlip, Spectator

Coming Back Brockens
'A brilliant work: at once an intimate history of coal-mining in the North-east, a spirited and wise personal memoir, and a pained description of an England that has all but exhausted itself.' Robert Winder, Independent

'Hudson has told the story with emotional and stylistic depth, his eye unfilmed by sentimentality but open to sentiment; generous, open-hearted and quirkily reflective.' Richard Hoggart, Sunday Times

'It is a beautifully written book which, in looking to the past, has something important to say to us all about life in Britain today.' Alan Clark

The Music in my Head
'A powerful and assured work, and a compelling and enjoyable read. Wry, honest and true. ' Ross Fortune, Time Out

'Above all, it's the music, the rhythms and the way they make Hudson's writing flow that make this such a groovy novel!' - Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times

'Full of good writing, in a style that is fast, punchy, and often very funny' - Christopher Hart, Literary Review

Email:

mhudson@book1.fsnet.co.uk