Author: “Emotional Reaction” To Bermuda
An internationally celebrated Bermuda-born author says although his family left the island when he was an infant, he experienced a spiritual homecoming of sorts when he eventually returned here.
Two-time Booker Prize nominee Jon McGregor – author of three bestselling novels and regarded by critics as one of Britain’s brightest literary stars — was born in Bermuda in 1976 when his clergyman father was serving in a clerical position here.
“I left Bermuda at the heady age of five months,” he has said. “I did go back there once, when I was 19, and was surprised by the emotional reaction I felt; it might have just been projection though, it’s kind of cool to go and find your roots somewhere, isn’t it?”
In the biographical section of his website, Mr. McGregor wryly notes: “1976: In February, he is born in Bermuda, a land of endless sunshine, palm trees, glorious beaches, scrubbed white houses, and the ocean. In September, his family move to Newcross, South London. Cheers.”
Mr. McGregor published his first book “If No One Speaks Of Remarkable Things” in 2002 when he was 26 years old. The book was hailed as ”a dream of a novel” and an “assured debut” by reviewers and nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
His most recent novel, “Even The Dogs”, appears in paperback this month. Recently selected as the Book of the Year by the “Irish Times’”, Mr. McGregor discusses the novels which helped to inspire his story in the UK “Guardian” today [Jan. 19].
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