Nationality British Books The English Lover Role Novelist | Name Jonathan Smith Children 2 | |
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Occupation Novelist, writer, teacher Genre Historical fiction
Semi-autobiographical | ||
Jonathan Smith (born 1942) is an English novelist, writer and teacher. A career English teacher, he is best known for his novels and has written numerous radio plays.
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Early life and education
Smith was born in Gloucestershire to a family of teachers originally from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. He was educated at Christ College, Brecon and read English at St John's College, Cambridge.
Career
Smith took up his first teaching job at Loretto School near Edinburgh in Scotland. After a brief stint at Melbourne Grammar School in Australia, he taught at Tonbridge School for the rest of his career and was head of English for 17 years. He published several novels during his teaching career before retiring in 2003 to concentrate on writing. His former pupils at Tonbridge include Sir Anthony Seldon, musician Kit Hesketh-Harvey, novelist Vikram Seth, poet Christopher Reid and actor Dan Stevens.
Personal life
Smith and his wife Gillian have a daughter and a son. His son Ed was his former pupil at Tonbridge and is a former England cricketer and published author.
In 2006, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer, he and his son went on a trip to India. It was the inspiration for his book The Following Game, published in 2011.
His first novel Wilfred and Eileen was adapted for BBC television into a four-part serial.
He also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his 1995 novel Summer in February, starring Dominic Cooper, Emily Browning and Dan Stevens, which was released in June 2013.
His latest novel The Churchill Secret KBO has been adapted for a feature-length movie starring Michael Gambon to be screened around Christmas 2015 on ITV.