Simon Mawer (1948–2025)
Author of The Glass Room
About the Author
Author and biology teacher Simon Mawer was born in England in 1948. He studied at Somerset's Millfield School and Oxford's Brasenose College, receiving a degree in zoology. Mawer's first novel, Chimera, won the McKitterick Prize, while The Fall earned the 2003 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain show more Literature. He has written several other novels, as well as the exhibition companion volume Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics. His novel, Tightrope, made the New Zealand Best Seller List in 2015 and won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. (Bowker Author Biography) Simon Mawer has a degree from Oxford & lives in Rome. He is the author of "Mendel's Dwarf" & several other widely praised & prize winning novels. 010 r show less
Series
Works by Simon Mawer
The Glass Room 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1948
- Date of death
- 2025-02-12
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Millfield School, Somerset, England, UK
Brasenose College, Oxford University - Occupations
- Biology teacher
- Awards and honors
- Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature (2003)
Man Booker Prize Shortlist (2009)
Walter Scott Prize Shortlist (2010)
Booker Prize Longlist (2009) - Agent
- Charles Walker
- Relationships
- Connie (wife)
Matthew (son)
Julia (daughter) - Short biography
- His father and grandfather served in the Royal Air Force. As a typical nomadic military family, his childhood was spent, amongst various moves in England, some years in Cyprus and Malta. These experiences gave him a love of the Mediterranean world and a taste for exile. From the age of eight he was educated in boarding schools, which forced upon him the need to preserve a secret, interior world in a society where privacy was at a premium, training that was significant in his development as a writer. After university he taught biology in the Channel Islands, then moved to Scotland, then Malta, before moving to Rome where he has lived ever since. Teaching and family took up much of his time, and it wasn't until his fortieth year that his first novel, Chimera, was published by Hamish Hamilton, a British book publishing house founded in 1931 which now belongs to Penguin Books. It won the McKitterick Prize for first novels. Mendel's Dwarf followed three works of modest success and established him as a writer of note on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Times judged it one of the "books to remember" of 1998. The option on a film version was sold first to Uzo and then to Barbra Streisand. The Gospel of Judas and The Fall followed. He published Swimming to Ithaca, a novel partially inspired by his childhood on the island of Cyprus. A book called A place in Italy (1992), written in the wake of A year in Provence, recounts the first two years of his life in an Italian village. Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics, another non-fiction book, was published in conjunction with the Field Museum of Chicago as a companion volume to the museum's exhibition of the same name. In 2009, Mawer published The Glass Room, a novel about a modernist villa built in a Czech city in 1928. Mawer has acknowledged that the book was primarily inspired by the Villa Tugendhat which was designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built in Brno in the Czech Republic in 1928–30. Mawer has lived in Italy for more than three decades, but he considers home to be where the mind is.
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- England
Cyprus
Malta
Channel Islands, UK
Scotland
Rome, Italy
Members
Reviews
I do not understand why Simon Mawer does not have a higher profile among contemporary British novelists. I am sure his novels sell well, and they are always well received by the critics, but for some reason his name does not seem as prominent or as widely recognised as it should be. Indeed, even though this book was well reviewed in The Times, it was buried away in a composite review of recent crime novels or thrillers, rather than meriting a dedicated review of its own.
That is a shame, show more because fear that too few readers will have the opportunity of enjoying his work, all of which I have found very rewarding. He seems to have been mining a particularly rich seam recently, and this latest book is a fine addition to his oeuvre and can happily sit alongside such great novels as The Glass Room, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and Tightrope.
Those previous three books were set in, or at least related heavily to, the Second World War. This latest one, as the name suggests, is set in 1968, and addresses the events leading to the Warsaw Pact ‘intervention’ in Czechoslovakia where a surge of liberalisation was threatening the totalitarian status quo.
Mawer tells his story principally through the agency of two couples. Ellie and James are students at Oxford, from starkly contrasting family backgrounds, who decide to spend the long vacation hitchhiking across the continent, without a fixed itinerary but with a vague hope of getting as far as Italy. As they travel, and as their relationship develops, they take instead to determining their route by tossing a coin. This brings them into contact with various people, including an eminent cellist who tells them that she is shortly to go to perform at a special festival in Prague. Ellie and James decide to alter their route with a view to seeing her concert there, and to try to capture some of the spirit of emancipation that they have heard is prevalent there.
Sam Wareham is an ambitious diplomat working in the Chancery office of the British embassy in Prague. We first encounter him saying goodbye to Stephanie, his girlfriend, who also works in the Embassy but has been reposted to London. Very soon, however, Sam encounters Lenka Konechkova, a Czech student and aspiring journalist, and they quickly establish a close relationship, which provides Sam with a valuable insight into the hopes and ambitions of the young Czech population which is taking advantage of concessions allowed by the current government led by Dubcek. There is, however, already a sense of menace as armed forces from each of Czechoslovakia’s Warsaw Pact neighbours mass around its borders.
Mawer’s gift as a writer is to snare the reader’s attention completely. His characters are well drawn and plausible: each of them is flawed in one way or another, but that somehow renders them more, rather than less empathetic. Ellie is reckless and domineering; James is consumed by northern inverted snobbery and actively looks for slights over which to fume; Sam is desperately ambitious but also slightly pompous; Lenka is headstrong and rather reluctant to compromise. The story fairly races along, and the various plotlines are pulled together very deftly. Of course, we all know what happened and how the political situation was resolved, but wondering how that will impact upon the individual characters simply offers additional savour.
This is another very enjoyable and well crafted book from Simon Mawer. show less
That is a shame, show more because fear that too few readers will have the opportunity of enjoying his work, all of which I have found very rewarding. He seems to have been mining a particularly rich seam recently, and this latest book is a fine addition to his oeuvre and can happily sit alongside such great novels as The Glass Room, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and Tightrope.
Those previous three books were set in, or at least related heavily to, the Second World War. This latest one, as the name suggests, is set in 1968, and addresses the events leading to the Warsaw Pact ‘intervention’ in Czechoslovakia where a surge of liberalisation was threatening the totalitarian status quo.
Mawer tells his story principally through the agency of two couples. Ellie and James are students at Oxford, from starkly contrasting family backgrounds, who decide to spend the long vacation hitchhiking across the continent, without a fixed itinerary but with a vague hope of getting as far as Italy. As they travel, and as their relationship develops, they take instead to determining their route by tossing a coin. This brings them into contact with various people, including an eminent cellist who tells them that she is shortly to go to perform at a special festival in Prague. Ellie and James decide to alter their route with a view to seeing her concert there, and to try to capture some of the spirit of emancipation that they have heard is prevalent there.
Sam Wareham is an ambitious diplomat working in the Chancery office of the British embassy in Prague. We first encounter him saying goodbye to Stephanie, his girlfriend, who also works in the Embassy but has been reposted to London. Very soon, however, Sam encounters Lenka Konechkova, a Czech student and aspiring journalist, and they quickly establish a close relationship, which provides Sam with a valuable insight into the hopes and ambitions of the young Czech population which is taking advantage of concessions allowed by the current government led by Dubcek. There is, however, already a sense of menace as armed forces from each of Czechoslovakia’s Warsaw Pact neighbours mass around its borders.
Mawer’s gift as a writer is to snare the reader’s attention completely. His characters are well drawn and plausible: each of them is flawed in one way or another, but that somehow renders them more, rather than less empathetic. Ellie is reckless and domineering; James is consumed by northern inverted snobbery and actively looks for slights over which to fume; Sam is desperately ambitious but also slightly pompous; Lenka is headstrong and rather reluctant to compromise. The story fairly races along, and the various plotlines are pulled together very deftly. Of course, we all know what happened and how the political situation was resolved, but wondering how that will impact upon the individual characters simply offers additional savour.
This is another very enjoyable and well crafted book from Simon Mawer. show less
Wonderful. Learn about genetics while getting to know a cranky, intelligent, funny little man - Dr. Benedict Lambert. Lambert is a dwarf. He is also a geneticist, and much of his drive in this field is to find out just what makes a dwarf.
About 90% of "little people" are accidents. They come from normal parents with no history of dwarfism. It's a genetic goof, a mutation. The question is: where does this mutation occur on the incredibly long DNA chain? When offered a seat at a prestigious show more institution, Lambert says this will be his area of study.
There is hardly an hour that goes by when Lambert is not reminded of the differences between him and "normal" humans. He is also sharply aware of the way many people overcompensate for their discomfort around him, clapping perhaps a little too loudly, smiling a little too broadly, only emphasizing more that they feel he is different from them.
Lambert yearns to know what he might have looked like, if the traits of achondroplasty had not separated him from his mother and father and joined him with others around the world instead. He wonders what a child of his, a normal child, would look like.
As he explains to us various wonders of genetics, complete with footnotes, always at the back of his mind is how it all ended up - in him. Curiously, he is related, by an odd great-uncle, to Gregor Mendel, the little priest who labored over his pea plants for years and years and wrote the definitive explanation of genetics, of dominance and recession and more. We are treated to many imaginary conversations in Mendel's life, filling out the bare bones of what is known of his existence.
This is no dry science book, however. The personality of Ben is far larger than his overlooked body, and it is this character that makes the book so alive. Ben is no long-suffering saint. When told how brave he is, he counters that bravery only counts when you have a choice. His appetites are certainly up to par, and his thoughts might even be considered ...at times...perverted.
And thus we come to his affair. He meets up with a woman who was a young librarian when he was but a callow youth seeking wisdom from the library shelves. He had always felt a little bit of lust about this quiet, retiring librarian with the quirky trait of having one blue eye and one green (a mutation as well!). The two become adult friends, and Ben can hardly keep from thinking about becoming more than friends. I will leave it to you to discover if this happens and what is the result.
While this is a funny, witty, intelligent book, don't be fooled into thinking there is anything particularly lightweight about it, Easy to read, sure, but weighty in implications, and finally, not made for television.
I should mention - the library from which I bought this book classified it as a "romance". tsk tsk. Somebody there should have read it or at least read the inside covers. show less
About 90% of "little people" are accidents. They come from normal parents with no history of dwarfism. It's a genetic goof, a mutation. The question is: where does this mutation occur on the incredibly long DNA chain? When offered a seat at a prestigious show more institution, Lambert says this will be his area of study.
There is hardly an hour that goes by when Lambert is not reminded of the differences between him and "normal" humans. He is also sharply aware of the way many people overcompensate for their discomfort around him, clapping perhaps a little too loudly, smiling a little too broadly, only emphasizing more that they feel he is different from them.
Lambert yearns to know what he might have looked like, if the traits of achondroplasty had not separated him from his mother and father and joined him with others around the world instead. He wonders what a child of his, a normal child, would look like.
As he explains to us various wonders of genetics, complete with footnotes, always at the back of his mind is how it all ended up - in him. Curiously, he is related, by an odd great-uncle, to Gregor Mendel, the little priest who labored over his pea plants for years and years and wrote the definitive explanation of genetics, of dominance and recession and more. We are treated to many imaginary conversations in Mendel's life, filling out the bare bones of what is known of his existence.
This is no dry science book, however. The personality of Ben is far larger than his overlooked body, and it is this character that makes the book so alive. Ben is no long-suffering saint. When told how brave he is, he counters that bravery only counts when you have a choice. His appetites are certainly up to par, and his thoughts might even be considered ...at times...perverted.
And thus we come to his affair. He meets up with a woman who was a young librarian when he was but a callow youth seeking wisdom from the library shelves. He had always felt a little bit of lust about this quiet, retiring librarian with the quirky trait of having one blue eye and one green (a mutation as well!). The two become adult friends, and Ben can hardly keep from thinking about becoming more than friends. I will leave it to you to discover if this happens and what is the result.
While this is a funny, witty, intelligent book, don't be fooled into thinking there is anything particularly lightweight about it, Easy to read, sure, but weighty in implications, and finally, not made for television.
I should mention - the library from which I bought this book classified it as a "romance". tsk tsk. Somebody there should have read it or at least read the inside covers. show less
The Glass Room is a novel about a house, a real and remarkable one, although the story and characters are fictional. It begins with the return of Liesel Landauer, now elderly and blind, to the house that she, a gentile, shared with her husband Viktor, a prosperous Jewish manufacturer of fine automobiles. The Landauer House, which sits on a hill overlooking the Czechoslovakian city of Mĕsto, was designed for the young couple by a famous Viennese architect in the 1920s, and was a classic work show more of modern design. The centerpiece of the house is the Glass Room, which has large plate glass windows and is partitioned by a wall made of onyx that changes in appearance with the position of the sun. Mawer describes the Glass Room early in the book, as the Landauers see it for the first time:
"It had become a palace of light, light bouncing off the chrome pillars, light refulgent on the walls, light glistening on the dew in the garden, light reverberating from the glass. It as though they stood inside a crystal of salt."
The Glass Room becomes a place where anything and everything is possible, as previous structural and cultural restraints are lifted. The wealthy and sophisticated couple embrace their new home to the fullest, using it frequently to host friends and business colleagues. Liesel's best friend, Hana, a irreverent, beautiful and sexually hungry married woman, is a frequent visitor who provides vitality and spark to the setting.
However, changes are occurring in Europe that darken and threaten the couple's idyllic existence. Hitler's national socialism spreads through and beyond nearby Germany, and the livelihood of Jews in Czechoslovakia becomes slowly but progressively more difficult. The Landauers initially ignore the warnings, as their wealth and influence insulate them from the growing menace. The couple agrees to take in a young woman who has been forced to flee from Vienna, a woman who is well known to Viktor. Finally the couple decides to flee their beloved house and country, but by the time they decide to do so, the Germans have already occupied Czechoslovakia. Hana and her Jewish husband, however, decide to stay in Mĕsto.
The novel then alternates between the lives of the Landauers and the new occupants, leading up to Liesel's eventual return to the Landauer House.
This was a brilliant and near-perfect novel that covers Europe before and during World War II and the subsequent decline in European culture, and includes rich descriptions of architecture, art and music. Love, infidelity and devotion are infused throughout the book, but ultimately the main story and character is the Landauer House with its Glass Room, and the effects it has on its inhabitants and visitors.
I suppose the highest praise I could give this novel is that I would like to start reading it again from the beginning. It is easily the best of the 2009 Booker Prize longlisted books I've read so far, and would be a deserving winner of the award, in my opinion. show less
"It had become a palace of light, light bouncing off the chrome pillars, light refulgent on the walls, light glistening on the dew in the garden, light reverberating from the glass. It as though they stood inside a crystal of salt."
The Glass Room becomes a place where anything and everything is possible, as previous structural and cultural restraints are lifted. The wealthy and sophisticated couple embrace their new home to the fullest, using it frequently to host friends and business colleagues. Liesel's best friend, Hana, a irreverent, beautiful and sexually hungry married woman, is a frequent visitor who provides vitality and spark to the setting.
However, changes are occurring in Europe that darken and threaten the couple's idyllic existence. Hitler's national socialism spreads through and beyond nearby Germany, and the livelihood of Jews in Czechoslovakia becomes slowly but progressively more difficult. The Landauers initially ignore the warnings, as their wealth and influence insulate them from the growing menace. The couple agrees to take in a young woman who has been forced to flee from Vienna, a woman who is well known to Viktor. Finally the couple decides to flee their beloved house and country, but by the time they decide to do so, the Germans have already occupied Czechoslovakia. Hana and her Jewish husband, however, decide to stay in Mĕsto.
The novel then alternates between the lives of the Landauers and the new occupants, leading up to Liesel's eventual return to the Landauer House.
This was a brilliant and near-perfect novel that covers Europe before and during World War II and the subsequent decline in European culture, and includes rich descriptions of architecture, art and music. Love, infidelity and devotion are infused throughout the book, but ultimately the main story and character is the Landauer House with its Glass Room, and the effects it has on its inhabitants and visitors.
I suppose the highest praise I could give this novel is that I would like to start reading it again from the beginning. It is easily the best of the 2009 Booker Prize longlisted books I've read so far, and would be a deserving winner of the award, in my opinion. show less
(17) Definitely my new favorite writer. Surprised by how few have this book on LT given it is already out on paperback. I thought his other novels were commercial successes and this continues the life of Marian Sutro, the young British girl with a French maman who was made a spy during WW2 and parachuted into the French countryside in 'Trapeze.' The end of that novel did not look good for Marian and always appreciated the cliffhanger ending without expecting a follow-up novel. Imagine my show more surprise when I saw it on the bookshelves on a local independent bookstore - seemingly without any hype or promotion. Or maybe just because I loved 'Glass Room' and 'Trapeze' doesn't mean everyone else did and no one cared a sequel had been released. Whatever the case may be, I really enjoyed this.
Marian is recovered from an escape from Ravensbruck - the concentration camp where she ended up during the craziness of the end of the War. She is battered and traumatized but picks herself up and moves on. It is unclear where the novel is going and the pacing seems off. It seems to be a framed story narrated by a man who had a crush on Marian when he was a child. Marian's espionage training has left her with a penchant for dissembling, even from herself. Her lives moves on in fits and starts and I for one found her an irresistible character. I loved how she was always described as smelling musky with a bit of sour undertones (a touch Tolstoy would have been proud of), I loved her impassive, elegant exterior and her core of steel, I loved that her relationship with Veronique was never spelled out, I loved the 1950's 'Spy who came in from the Cold' vibe that the last ~1/4 of the book held.
Mawer is a great writer with excellent sense of place, time, character; fine prose you fall into without the words themselves taking over center stage from the plot. I think the pacing of this novel seemed a bit off and for some reason I kept expecting just a bit more drama somehow. I liked his other novels I have read better though respect the slow burn of this one as well. I am a fan and I will miss Marian Sutro - it is not often I read a fiction about a woman I feel I can truly admire; faults and all. show less
Marian is recovered from an escape from Ravensbruck - the concentration camp where she ended up during the craziness of the end of the War. She is battered and traumatized but picks herself up and moves on. It is unclear where the novel is going and the pacing seems off. It seems to be a framed story narrated by a man who had a crush on Marian when he was a child. Marian's espionage training has left her with a penchant for dissembling, even from herself. Her lives moves on in fits and starts and I for one found her an irresistible character. I loved how she was always described as smelling musky with a bit of sour undertones (a touch Tolstoy would have been proud of), I loved her impassive, elegant exterior and her core of steel, I loved that her relationship with Veronique was never spelled out, I loved the 1950's 'Spy who came in from the Cold' vibe that the last ~1/4 of the book held.
Mawer is a great writer with excellent sense of place, time, character; fine prose you fall into without the words themselves taking over center stage from the plot. I think the pacing of this novel seemed a bit off and for some reason I kept expecting just a bit more drama somehow. I liked his other novels I have read better though respect the slow burn of this one as well. I am a fan and I will miss Marian Sutro - it is not often I read a fiction about a woman I feel I can truly admire; faults and all. show less
Lists
Women in War (1)
Booker Prize (1)
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- 17
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- #6,884
- Rating
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