Unapologetic

by Francis Spufford

  Much of the book repeats things I learned from the three people it is dedicated to. I hope they know how grateful I am that they taught them to me.

  For their generous comments on parts of the manuscript, or the whole of it, I am indebted to Bernice Martin, Jenny Turner, Claerwen James, Marina Benjamin, Maura Dooley, Ann Malcolm, Tim Hooper, and the monthly writers’ workshop run by my 2007–8 MA students at Goldsmiths College.

  I have checked facts and quotations, but I haven’t done any research for this book. It is, designedly, just a report from the inside of my head, drawing on what’s already in there.

  I don’t need to point out that I am not any kind of spokesman for the Church of England, do I?

  About the Author

  Francis Spufford, a former Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year (1997), has edited two acclaimed literary anthologies and a collection of essays about the history of technology. His first book, I May Be Some Time, won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of 1996, the Banff Mountain Book Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. His second, The Child That Books Built, gave Neil Gaiman ‘the peculiar feeling that there was now a book I didn't need to write’. His third, Backroom Boys, was called ‘as nearly perfect as makes no difference’ by the Daily Telegraph and was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize. His most recent book, Red Plenty, was called ‘odd, brilliant and crazily brave’ in the Evening Standard, longlisted for the Orwell Prize and translated into eight languages. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College and lives near Cambridge.

  By the same author

  I May Be Some Time

  The Child that Books Built

  Backroom Boys

  Red Plenty

  First published in 2012

  by Faber and Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2012

  All rights reserved

  © Francis Spufford, 2012

  The right of Francis Spufford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–28136–7