Timothy Mo

{{Short description|Hong Kong-born British novelist (born 1950)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox writer  |name = Timothy Mo |image = |pseudonym = |birth_name = Timothy Peter Mo |birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1950|12|30|df=y}} |birth_place = |death_date = |death_place = |occupation = Novelist |nationality = British |period = 1978–present |genre = Fiction |subject = |movement = |influences = |influenced = |signature = |website = |module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes |c = 毛翔青<ref>{{cite news|url=http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/international/art/20111219/15905004|title= 一個人一個故事：消失12年 Timothy Mo新作面世|work=Apple Daily|date=19 December 2011|accessdate=17 December 2015}}{{Dead link|date=November 2022}}</ref> |p = Máo Xiángqīng |y = Mòuh Chèuhngchīng |j = Mou4 Coeng4-ching1}} }}

'''Timothy Peter Mo''' (born 30{{nbsp}}December 1950<ref>According to "Timothy Mo" in ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, (16 June 2004 update), some sources give his year of birth as 1953</ref>) is a British Asian novelist. Born to a British mother and a Hong Kong father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10, when he moved to Britain. Educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, Mo worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist.<ref name="Rennison2005">{{cite book|author=Nick Rennison|title=Contemporary British novelists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1g3d69mwd4C&pg=PA101|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-21709-5|pages=101–3}}</ref>

His works have won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction), and three of his novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.<ref name="BritCounLit"/> Mo was also the recipient of the 1992 E. M. Forster Award.<ref name="AmerAcad"/> His novel ''An Insular Possession'' (1986) was among the contenders in ''The Telegraph'''s list of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels.<ref>{{Cite web|title=10 best Asian novels of all time|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10630332/10-best-Asian-novels-of-all-time.html|date=22 April 2014|access-date=2020-12-06|website=The Telegraph|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In the early 1990s Mo became increasingly mistrustful of his publishers and increasingly outspoken about the publishing industry in general. Since 1994 when he rejected a £125,000 advance from Random House for his next novel, he has self-published his books under the label "Paddleless Press". His first novel to be self-published was ''Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard''.<ref>Tonkin, Boyd (22 October 2011). [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-books-interview-timothy-mo-postcards-from-the-edge-1105400.html "Timothy Mo - Postcards from the edge"]. ''The Independent''. Retrieved 27 November 2015.</ref><ref>Foran, Charles (22 June 2012). [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-the-mysterious-timothy-mo/article4364456/ "The rise and fall, and rise again, of the mysterious Timothy Mo"]. ''The Globe and Mail''. Retrieved 27 November 2015.</ref><ref>[http://www.books-by-isbn.com/0-9524193/ Books by ISBN Paddleless Press]</ref>

== Background == Mo has been described as a British Asian author.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tamara S. Wagner|editor1=Neil Murphy|editor2=Wai-Chew Sim|title=British Asian Fiction: Framing the Contemporary|date=2008|publisher=Cambria Press|chapter=Gorged-out Cadavers of Hills|isbn=978-1604975413|page=165|quote=British Asian authors like Timothy Mo or Kazuo Ishiguro.}}</ref>

== Novels ==

*''The Monkey King'' (1978) *''Sour Sweet'' (1982), filmed as ''Soursweet'' in 1988 *''An Insular Possession'' (1986) *''The Redundancy of Courage'' (1991) *''Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard'' (1995) *''Renegade or Halo2'' (2000) *''Pure'' (2012)

==Awards== * 1979: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for ''The Monkey King''<ref name="BritCounLit">{{cite web|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/timothy-mo|title=Timothy Mo British Council Literature|work=British Council|publisher=British Council|accessdate=14 January 2016}}</ref> * 1982: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for ''Sour Sweet''<ref name="BritCounLit"/> * 1982: Hawthornden Prize for ''Sour Sweet''<ref name="BritCounLit"/> * 1986: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for ''An Insular Possession''<ref name="BritCounLit"/> * 1991: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for ''The Redundancy of Courage''<ref name="BritCounLit"/> * 1992: E. M. Forster Award<ref name="AmerAcad">{{cite web|url=http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Forster|title=American Academy of Arts and Letters - Award Winners|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Letters|accessdate=9 July 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106111558/http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Forster|archivedate=6 November 2011}}</ref> * 1999: James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) for ''Renegade or Halo2''<ref name="BritCounLit"/>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{British council|id=timothy-mo|name=Timothy Mo}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mo, Timothy}} Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century British male writers Category:20th-century British novelists Category:21st-century British male writers Category:21st-century British novelists Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Category:British Asian writers Category:British male novelists Category:British people of Hong Kong descent Category:English people of Hong Kong descent Category:Hong Kong emigrants to England Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Category:People educated at Mill Hill School