Dame Rose Tremain (born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia.

Life

Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and Keith Nicholas Home Thomson. Her paternal great-grandfather is William Thomson, who was Archbishop of York from 1862 to 1890. She was educated at Francis Holland School, Crofton Grange School, the Sorbonne (1961–1962) and the University of East Anglia (BA, English Literature). She later went on to teach creative writing at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1995, and was appointed Chancellor in 2013. She married Jon Tremain in 1971 and they had one daughter, Eleanor, born in 1972, who became an actress. The marriage lasted about five years. Her second marriage, to theatre director Jonathan Dudley, in 1982, lasted about nine years; and she has been with Richard Holmes since 1992. She lives in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich in Norfolk.

Writing

Her influences include William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, and Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude and the magical realism style. She is a historical novelist who approaches her subjects "from unexpected angles, concentrating her attention on unglamorous outsiders". In 2009, she donated the short story The Jester of Astapovo to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Earth" collection. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983. Already Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Tremain was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to writing.

Awards and honours

Selected bibliography

Novels

Collections of short stories

For children

Memoir