John Banville

Who is John Banville?

The well known Irish writer John Banville was born in 1945 and has been pursuing his passion for writing novels for more than 50 years. Earlier in his life, he worked as a clerk at Aer Lingus, after leaving that job, he gradually found work as an editor for a Dublin newspaper, until one day he became the literary editor of The Irish Times. He never attended college, yet he wrote books that critics adored. At first, his books weren’t very popular, but that changed over time.

2005 was the turning point, when The Sea won the Booker Prize. Before long he was on the front of the books pages, and everyone was keen to know who this sharp-tongued man from Wexford was. A year later he surprised people once more, taking up crime fiction as Benjamin Black.

If you want the long version, we've put together a proper biography.

What makes his books worth reading

The sentences are the main thing. Banville drafts his literary novels by hand, using a fountain pen, and each one takes him somewhere between two and five years. It shows. Every page is put together with a kind of care you don't often see any more. He's sometimes compared to Nabokov, and he doesn't seem to mind.

His narrators tend to be clever, vain men reflecting on something that went badly wrong. A murderer setting down his confession. A spy giving his version of events. A widower wandering the seaside town where he passed one odd summer as a child. You dont always like them. You do keep reading.

Then there's the crime side. The Quirke books, set in grey, Church-run 1950s Dublin, are much easier going but still beautifully written. Plenty of readers come in that way and work backwards.

Start here

The Sea The Booker winner. Grief, memory and one summer by the sea. The Untouchable A spy novel that's really about lying, art and getting old. Christine Falls The first Quirke mystery. Dark, foggy, hard to put down. Snow A country-house murder in 1957. Great winter reading.

Still undecided? Our where to start guide sorts the books by mood, so you can pick one that fits.

Quick facts

Full name

William John Banville

Born

8 December 1945, Wexford, Ireland

Lives

Howth, Dublin

Pen name

Benjamin Black (crime novels, 2006 to 2020)

Best known for

The Sea, The Untouchable, The Book of Evidence, the Quirke novels

Big prizes

Booker Prize 2005, Franz Kafka Prize 2011, Prince of Asturias Award 2014. Full list