Ian Thomson

Ian Thomson was born in London and educated at Dulwich College and Cambridge University.  He began his career as a teacher of English literature and English as a foreign language in Rome and also worked there as a journalist (1984-86).  He then became a full-time journalist, critic and writer based in London; his writings have been published in Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Observer, Spectator, and Times Literary Supplement.

Thomson is a literary biographer and travel writer who specialises in Italy and the Caribbean.  His biography of Primo Levi won the Royal Society of Literature W.H. Heinemann Prize in 2003.  He also wrote the much acclaimed Bonjour Blanc: A Journey through Haiti, published in 1990. More recently his  The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica won the Dolman Travel Book of the Year award and the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, both in 2010.

He lives in London with his wife and children and is currently a Fellow at University College Graduate School.