Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences
I am a novelist and screenwriter and a Professor of Creative Writing from England, in the UK. I have worked previously both in the film and television business and as a literary agent. I have published 8 novels. My 2004 novel The Unnumbered was long-listed for the Man-Booker prize and in 2010 I won an Eric Gregory Award. My first novel, The Automatic Man, won the Somerset Maugham Award. I wrote a film for the Beat photographer, the late Robert Frank, which was commissioned by the BBC. I have written two books about writing, the first on prose fiction, Five Analogies... and the second about screenwriting, The Instinctive Screenplay. In 2017 I optioned a spec. screenplay to Kevin Loader (producer of the Death of Stalin among many other films), which remains unproduced.
- I have a PhD from the University of Exeter.
- In my 20s I did many different jobs, from working on building sites to being a London motorcycle messenger. In my 30s I worked for a television company making corporate films as well as documentaries and dramas for British television. In my 40s I worked as a literary agent, selling film rights to UK, European and American film and television industries. For seven years I worked full time as a writer, before joining the University of Exeter as a Lecturer when I was 47.
- Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Authority (HEA)
- 2010: Society of Authors’ Eric Gregory Award.
- 2010: Finalist, Arvon International Poetry Prize.
- 2005: Long-list, Man Booker Prize
- 1990: Somerset Maugham Award
The Old Country – Simon and Schuster. ‘An elegiac yet delightfully funny and eccentrically English story, written with a humour and charm that makes it irresistible.’ – Juliet Nicolson. ‘A brilliant comic elegy to a disappearing world’ – DBC Pierre. ‘A joyous and spirited celebration of the ‘constant turmoil’ of life, full of a searching tenderness that never fails to touch the heart.’ Olivia Laing, TLS.
The Velvet Rooms – Simon and Schuster. ‘…is stunning, nothing quite prepares you for the sheer wallop of its audacity’ - Ken Bruen, author of ‘Priest’. ‘Compelling, poignant and witty.’ The Guardian.
The Unnumbered – Simon and Schuster, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. ‘Illegal immigration has long awaited its Flaubert, the novelist talented enough to raise the commonplace hopes and desires of displaced humanity into an epiphany. Sam North is that writer.’ – Fiametto Rocco, The Economist.
The Lie of the Land - Secker and Warburg. ‘North is gifted with great eloquence … he is superb on the unremitting poverty in this rural tale’ - The Guardian.
By Desire - Secker and Warburg. ‘A terrific performance by a fine writer’ and 'couldn't be faulted' – The Independent. Had 'a perfect ending' – TLS.
The Gifting Programme – Secker and Warburg. ’A buoyant, intelligent work, beautifully wrought and sparkling with stylistic panache’- The Times.
Chapel Street – Secker and Warburg. Promoted by two Booker Prize judges as on their personal 'shortlist'. ‘A radiant piece of writing.’
The Automatic Man – Secker and Warburg. Winner of a Somerset Maugham Award - ‘A striking debut, sharply written and worrying, the writing has an urgent, visceral immediacy’- DJ Taylor, Sunday Times.
Film –
The Last Supper – dir. Robert Frank The Americans, etc), BBC Arena, 1992
The Tower – spec. screenplay optioned 2019, Free Range Films, the late Roger Michell (dir Notting Hill etc) and Kevin Loader (pr Death of Stalin etc) (unproduced).
The Devil’s Assassin – 2007, commissioned by Samuelson Productions and The Film Council (unproduced).
Non-fiction –
The Instinctive Screenplay – watching and writing screen drama, 2017, Palgrave Macmillan. ‘I truly think this is a new way of discussing screenplays and for me it ranks right up there with Egri and his The Art of Dramatic Writing. I will make it essential reading for students and colleagues. I should point out I have made a living as a screenwriter for over 20 years.’ (Peer review)
Five Analogies… - 2012, Gylphi Press. A set of five lectures on the process of writing prose fiction (PhD).
- I gave a series of lectures at the Whistling Woods International Film School in Mumbai.
- I have performed various roles over the years at the University of Exeter: Director of PGT for Humanities, Director of the MA in Creative Writing and programme leader for the BA in English and Creative Writing. In 2022 at the University of Exeter I won an ‘Above and Beyond’ Silver Award. I have supervised 15 PhD students to completion, been an external examiner 4 times, an internal examiner 5. I devised and implemented the three-year combined-honours undergraduate degree programme, English and Creative Writing. I have devised and taught many different creative writing modules over a 17-year teaching career.