David Mitchell

Nicholas Dunlop (University of South Wales)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 12 Jan 1969
Activity 1999-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Mitchell's Works

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David Mitchell was born on January 12th, 1969 in Southport, Lancashire, where his parents worked as freelance artists. Having moved to a working-class rural community in Malvern, Worcestershire at the age of seven, Mitchell’s childhood was largely uneventful, though significantly shaped by a self-conscious ambivalence towards his middle-class upbringing and a debilitating stammer which left him feeling isolated among his peers. Mitchell has said that “I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid”, and his talent for playful, heteroglossic narrative, his observational skill and his empathy for outsiders can be traced back in part to his own childhood experiences. An overriding anxiety about the possibility of nuclear holocaust, a very real and omnipresent threat at the height of…

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1227 words

Citation: Dunlop, Nicholas. "David Mitchell". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12234, accessed 21 November 2024.]