Biography
Geoff Dyer was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in 1958 and was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His first book, Ways of Telling: The Work of John Berger, was published in 1986. His first novel was The Colour of Memory (1989), set in Brixton, south London, in the 1980s.
His non-fiction includes a book about jazz entitled But Beautiful (1991), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Missing of the Somme (1994), which was adapted for BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the battle of the Somme; a book about D. H. Lawrence entitled Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. Lawrence (1997), which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (USA); and a collection of essays, Anglo-English Attitudes: Essays, Reviews, Misadventures, 1984-99, published in 1999.
He is also the author of three novels including The Search (1993), a complex narrative about a woman's search for her missing husband, and Paris Trance (1998), chronicling the sex and drug-fuelled adventures of two couples living in Paris.
His latest books are Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It (2003) and The Ongoing Moment (2005), an idiosyncratic history of photography.
Bibliography
Ways of Telling: The Work of John Berger Pluto, 1986
The Colour of Memory Cape, 1989
But Beautiful Cape, 1991
The Search Hamish Hamilton, 1993
The Missing of the Somme Hamish Hamilton, 1994
Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. Lawrence Little, Brown, 1997
Paris Trance Abacus, 1998
Anglo-English Attitudes: Essay, Reviews, Misadventures, 1984-99 Abacus, 1999
What Was True: The Photographs and Notebooks of William Gedney (editor with Margaret Sartor) W. W. Norton, 2000
The Selected Essays of John Berger (editor) Bloomsbury, 2001
Granta 79: Celebrity (contributor: 'An Infamous Night Out in Amsterdam') Granta, 2002
Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It Little, Brown, 2003
But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz, 2003
The Ongoing Moment Little, Brown, 2005
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (Canongate), 2009
Prizes and awards -
1992 Somerset Maugham Award But Beautiful
1997 National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (USA) (shortlist) Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. Lawrence
2003 Lannan Literary Fellowship
2004 WH Smith People's Choice Award Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It
2006 E. M. Forster Award
2006 ICP Infinity Award for Writing on Photography The Ongoing Moment
