Philip Hensher

Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, Philip Hensher was among Granta 20 Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. The author of six novels, a collection of short stories and an opera libretto, he has won numerous prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award and the Stonewall Journalist of the Year. His 2008 novel, The Northern Clemency, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Prize. A regular presence in the British media, alongside his Wednesday column for The Independent, he writes for The Spectator and Mail on Sunday. His new novel, King Of The Badgers, will be published by Fourth Estate in March 2011.

What's Mandarin for cringeworthy? Our columnist fears the ironies of The Office may be lost on its forthcoming Chinese audience, as it has been lost in other countries

Philip Hensher: University isn’t right for everyone

Notebook: When Tony Blair, 10 years ago, set the target that 50 per cent of young people should go to university, many observers applauded the idealism but doubted whether the target could be attained. It hasn’t been attained yet overall, although half of young women do now go into further education.

Recently by Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher: There's more to marriage than a contract between a man and a woman

Saturday, 14 August 2010

Same-sex marriage in California appears to have come about not through moral principle but from a ruling on the right of appeal

Philip Hensher: The dictionary can’t have the last word

Monday, 9 August 2010

Notebook: Fans of that great movie classic, Mean Girls, will remember Gretchen’s tragically unsuccessful efforts to introduce a new word to the English language

Philip Hensher: Works of art are not child's play

Friday, 6 August 2010

The week in culture

Philip Hensher: Let's hear it for the traffic warden

Monday, 2 August 2010

Notebook

Philip Hensher: Sorry need not be the hardest word

Monday, 26 July 2010

To apologise is to divide yourself, momentarily, in two. There is the person who has offended; and there is the person with a moral attitude, who recognises the wrong of the statement or act committed. It is not an easy act to perform, and has to be taught. Small children have to be trained to understand not just that hitting their smaller sibling was wrong, but that it is important to acknowledge that wrongness, and to state it. A person who never learns to divide themselves in this way has some fundamental incapacity.