Mark Hudson (author)

Mark Hudson is a multiple-award-winning British writer, journalist and critic, whose books have been described as exploring the boundaries between fiction and travel writing.

Biography

Hudson’s books are diverse in subject matter, but united by their approach which incorporates elements of history, travel writing, cultural criticism and personal participation. As a journalist Hudson has written extensively about African music and culture, and two of his books are set in Africa. Our Grandmothers' Drums, based on a year spent living in a village in the Gambia, described the author’s personal and emotional involvement in village life with a frankness unusual in either travel writing or anthropology. ‘I have rarely read a book of greater passion or honesty,’ wrote the Sunday Times. While the book’s candidness attracted some criticism, particularly in the U.S., it won two literary awards, Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1990) and Somerset Maugham Award (1990). The Music in my Head, a scabrous satire on the world music phenomenon, set in a fictional West African city, offended many in the world music milieu, but delighted others.

Coming Back Brockens, based on a year spent in a former mining village in the north of England – where the author’s grandfather and great-grandfather were both miners – was acclaimed in The Independent as "a pained description of an England that has all but exhausted itself". Hudson’s most recent book, Titian, the Last Days, is a personal study of the great Venetian painter Titian, focusing on his mysterious last paintings.

Hudson is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and has also written for The Observer, the Mail on Sunday, the Financial Times, the Sunday Times and the Guardian.

Awards

• NCR Book Award (now the Samuel Johnson Prize) for Coming Back Brockens.
• Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for Our Grandmothers' Drums.
• Somerset Maugham Award for Our Grandmothers' Drums.

Works

Books

• Our Grandmothers’ Drums (1989)
• Coming Back Brockens (1994)
• The Music in my Head (1998)
• Titian, the Last Days (2009)

Discography

• The Music in my Head (Sterns)
• The Music in my Head Vol 2 (Sterns 2002)
• Etoile de Dakar ‘Once Upon A Time In Senegal’ (Sterns) (Notes)

Reviews

• Telegraph: Titian: the Last Days review by Serena Davis
• The Sunday Times: Titian: the Last Days review by Keith Miller
• The Guardian: Titian: the Last Days review by PD Smith
• The Tablet: Titian: the Last Days review by Lynn Roberts