Novelist Susan Hill (English, 1963) published her first novel whilst studying at King’s.

Susan was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire during World War II. Although the family moved to Coventry when Susan was 16, many of her novels and short stories still feature her hometown by the sea.

Susan started at King’s in 1960 and published The Enclosure whilst in her first year here. She has gone on to write many best-selling novels including I’m the King of the Castle, Mist in the Mirror, Strange Meeting and The Risk of Darkness. Her ghost story The Woman in Black was adapted as a stage-play and is now the second longest-running play in the West End. In 2012, it was made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe.

Susan founded the independent publishing house, Long Barn Books, in 1997. She has been a reviewer for many newspapers and journals and she is a regular contributor to The Spectator.

Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and the Somerset Maugham and have been shortlisted for the Booker. She was awarded a Damehood by The Queen in 2020 for her services to literature.

Did you know? Susan claims her Mastermind specialist subject would be ‘the English Novel’. Or horse racing.