Biography
Iain Sinclair was born in 1943 in Cardiff, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, the Courtauld Institute of Art, and the London School of Film Technique. His early work was poetry, published by his own Albion Village Press, and including the collections Lud Heat: A Book of the Dead Hamlets (1975) and Suicide Bridge: A Mythology of the South and East (1979). He was connected to the British avantgarde poetry scene in the 1960s and 70s involving J. H. Prynne, Douglas Oliver and Brian Calting. He also edited the 1996 poetry anthology, Conductors of Chaos.
The city of London is central to his work, and his books tell a psychogeography of London involving characters including Jack the Ripper, Count Dracula and Arthur Conan Doyle. His non-fiction works inlude Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London (1997); London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25 (2002); and Edge of the Orison (2005), a reconstruction of the poet John Clare's walk from Epping Forest to Helpston, near Peterborough.
His novels include Downriver (1991), which tells of a UK under the rule of 'The Widow', a grotesque version of Margaret Thatcher; Landor's Tower (2001); White Goods (2002); and Dining on Stones (2004).
Iain Sinclair lives in Hackney, East London.
Bibliography
Back Garden: Poems and Stories (illustrated by Laurence Bicknell) Albion Village Press, 1970
The Kodak Mantra Diaries Albion Village Press, 1971
Muscat's Würm Albion Village Press, 1972
Groucho Positive, Groucho Negative The Village Press, 1973
The Birth Rug Albion Village Press, 1973
Lud Heat: A Book of the Dead Hamlets Albion Village Press, 1975
The Penances The Many Press, 1977
Suicide Bridge: A Mythology of the South and East Albion Village Press, 1979
White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings Goldmark, 1987
Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal: Selected Poems 1970-1987 Paladin Grafton, 1989
Downriver Paladin, 1991
Jack Elam's Other Eye (illustrated by Gavin Jones) Hoarse Comerz Press, 1991
Radon Daughters Cape, 1994
Conductors of Chaos (editor) Picador, 1996
Penguin Modern Poets (with Douglas Oliver and Denise Riley) Penguin, 1996
Lights Out for the Territory: 9 Excursions in the Secret History of London (illustrated by Marc Atkins) Granta, 1997
Slow Chocolate Autopsy (illustrated by David McKean) Phoenix House, 1997
The Ebbing of the Kraft Equipage, 1997
Crash British Film Institute, 1999
Dark-Lanthorns: Rodinsky as a Psychogeographer Goldmark, 1999
Liquid City (with Marc Atkins) Reaktion, 1999
Rodinsky's Room (with Rachel Lichtenstein) Granta, 1999
Sorry Meniscus Profile, 1999
Landor's Tower Granta, 2001
London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25 Granta, 2002
Saddling the Rabbit Etruscan Books, 2002
White Goods (with Emma Matthews) Goldmark, 2002
Dining on Stones Hamish Hamilton, 2004
Edge of the Orison Hamish Hamilton, 2005
Buried at Sea The Worple Press, 2006
London: City of Disappearances (editor) Hamish Hamilton, 2006
The Firewall: Selected Poems 1979-2006 Etruscan Books, 2006
Hackney Novel: Black Teeth Hamish Hamilton, 2007
Prizes and awards
1991 Encore Award Downriver
1991 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) Downriver
