Justin Hill

Justin Hill has been likened to a George Orwell, a boxer, and Tolstoy. He attended the same school as Guy Fawkes and after graduating from Durham University with a Third Class Degree in Old English and Medieval Literature, he spent seven years penance with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) in small town China and Eritrea, East Africa.

Justin has always believed that good fiction should combine beautiful language with convincing characters and page-turning plots.

His internationally acclaimed first novel, The Drink and Dream Teahouse (chosen by the Washington Post as one of the Top Novels of 2001) won the 2003 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, a 2002 Betty Trask Award, and was banned by the government in China.

His second novel, Passing Under Heaven, which used the remaining poems of Tang Dynasty poet, Yu Xuanji, to re-imagine her life. It won the 2005 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Encore Award.

Ciao Asmara, a factual account of his time in Eritrea, was shortlisted for the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

In 2011, Justin 'came home', and published his first English novel: Shieldwall, which chronicals the momentous events that surround the Battle of Hastings, in 1066.

For more information see www.justinhillauthor.com