Philip Hensher
Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, Philip Hensher was among Granta 20 Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. The author of six novels, a collection of short stories and an opera libretto, he has won numerous prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award and the Stonewall Journalist of the Year. His 2008 novel, 'The Northern Clemency', was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Prize. A regular presence in the British media, alongside his Wednesday column for The Independent, he writes for The Spectator and Mail on Sunday.
On Google+
On Twitter
Top writers
Places
Politics
Concerned about gay rights at the Sochi Winter Olympics? Just get boycotting
11 August 2013 05:58 PM
Boycotts are not the answer, said Lord Coe, who pointed out that his attendance at the 1980 Moscow Olympics led, 10 years later, to the fall of the Berlin Wall
We have all the time in the world for Wagner
26 July 2013 03:24 PM
The audiences for this immense work ought to be disappearing. In fact, they're growing
Tulip Siddiq: A heritage in Bangadeshi politics, a future in British?
19 July 2013 03:22 PM
The grandfather of Tulip Siddiq founded Bangladesh. Ms Siddiq's progress in her run for parliament is worth watching carefully
Tinker, tailor, typewriter, spy – the old ways work
12 July 2013 05:11 PM
PLUS: More Beckett, fewer coffee shops for Reading University
As long as reading survives, so will bookshops
05 July 2013 05:06 PM
The small independent bookshop has been one of the great joys of my life, and its slow disappearance a great sadness
We’re on a journey full-circle back to O-levels
14 June 2013 05:21 PM
Michael Gove's reforms, which will stretch the brightest students, are long overdue
Patrick Mercer: An everyday story of deception in Parliament
07 June 2013 07:40 PM
Mr Mercer denies taking payment for performance of his parliamentary duties, but is under investigation
Finally, the French have their mot juste
31 May 2013 03:57 PM
All languages have their gaps. But how did it take so long for France to catch up with "French kissing"?
The Holocaust can’t be a joke – least of all in Berlin
24 May 2013 06:35 PM
I confronted one group raising havoc in the Monument to the Murdered Jews
The Oxford sex ring shows how the sexual manners of a new place can be tragically misinterpreted
17 May 2013 05:33 PM
What drove these men was deracination: a detachment from one culture, and a failure to attach or understand another. They believed they could get away with it
-
1
Fracking is turning the US into a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia
-
2
Hells of residence: Inside Macedonia's horrifying student accommodation - where the walls are green and the food is black
-
3
First Kiss video: Filmmaker gets 20 strangers to make out on YouTube with awkward results
-
4
Grace Dent: Who cares if she spells it Barraco Barner? Gemma Worrall is more employable than some bookish arts graduate
-
5
Rampaging elephant smashes up house but then 'saves crying baby trapped under debris'
Cumbria: The place to be
Win the ultimate photograph break worth over £2500 in the Lake District, Cumbria.
Summer Austria
In the summer, Austria casts off its iconic icy appearance and turns gorgeously green – its mountains and valleys becoming the perfect playground for sunny adventures.
Win a luxury two-night break in York
Plus two East Coast return tickets from London to York and two York Passes
Coats for inbetweeners
In November you coveted the soft teddy down of your winter coat – the affair is over. Now you’re trading up: switching cosy coat for spring jacket.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.