Output details

The Lessons

The Lessons is a novel set in Oxford, which narrates a decline into self-destruction through an attraction to glamour. Part of the creative process was to ask myself a series of questions. Why do many students at Oxford arrive cheerful, confident, eager to learn, and leave three years later broken, shredded and demoralised? Why does Oxford have a higher suicide rate than almost any other university in the country? How might my personal experience at Oxford be inquired into as a story of general interest? What are the traditions of the novel set in Oxford, and how might I exploit them for my own ends? These are some of the research questions to which The Lessons is a creative response - an attempt to work from certain premises through to their practical and emotional implications and into previously unknown but realistically plausible territory. The novel was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and published in eight languages. It was nominated for several awards, and was particularly well-received in France.