Benjamin Wood
Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in northwest England. He is the author of four acclaimed novels.
His debut The Bellwether Revivals (2012) was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won France's Prix du Roman Fnac.
His second novel The Ecliptic (2015) was shortlisted for the Encore Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.
His third book A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (2018) was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature and the CWA Gold Dagger Award.
His latest work The Young Accomplice was published by Penguin Viking in June 2022. It was selected as one of the books of the year by The Times & Sunday Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Irish Times, and others. A serialised version of the novel was broadcast as a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime in April 2023.
Benjamin is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at King's College London. He lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.
“Once you surrender to hope, its a long road back to reason." There was a certain tone of self-loathing in the way Crest said it.”
“And Oscar would tell the old man his only regret: that he was living the unremarkable life his parents had always expected from him.”
“Oscar was raised to believe that if he stayed in his room reading about made up worlds it meant he didn't appreciate the life he had, the possessions his parents had worked hard for, like the TV and the video and the newly turfed back garden.”
“Actually, I think it's the opposite. We know each other so well there isn't anything left to say. Sometimes it's nice just sitting here with you all, thinking. It's only best friends who can be comfortable with silence, wouldn't you say?”
“My theory is that hope is a form of madness. A benevolent one, sure, but madness all the same. Like an irrational superstition--broken mirrors and so forth--hope's not based on any kind of logic, it's just unfettered optimism, grounded in nothing but faith in things beyond our control.”