The Writers of Wales Database

WALL, ALAN

Alan Wall was born in Bradford and studied English at Oxford. He has published numerous novels and a book of short stories. Jacob (Bellew Publishing, 1993), which is written in verse and prose, was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize.
His work has been translated into nine languages and published around the world. Alan has also published essays and reviews in many different periodicals including the Guardian, Spectator, The Times, Jewish Quarterly, Leonardo, PN Review, London Magazine and Agenda. 

He has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow in Writing at Warwick University and Liverpool John Moores. Alan is currently Professor of Writing and Literature at the University of Chester. He lives in North Wales. Doctor Placebo (Shearsman Books, 2010) was on the 2011 Wales Book of the Year Long List.

Review:

"…I don’t think there’s a better English prose writer living…"
Anne Stevenson


Selected Publications:
Jacob (Bellew Publishing, 1993)
Curved Light (Bellew Publishing, 1994)
Chronicle (Bellew Publishing, 1995)
Bless the Thief (Secker & Warburg, 1997)
A–Z (Colophon, 1997)
Lenses (Colophon, 1997)
Silent Conversations (Secker & Warburg, 1998)
The Lightning Cage (Secker & Warburg, 1999)
Richard Dadd in Bedlam and Other Stories (Secker & Warburg, 1999)
The School of Night (Secker & Warburg, 2001)
China (Secker & Warburg, 2003)
Writing Fiction (Collins Need to Know?) (Collins, 2007)
Sylvie’s Riddle (Quartet Books, 2008)
Alexander Pope at Twickenham (Shearsman Books, 2008)
Gilgamesh (Shearsman Books, 2008)
Doctor Placebo (Shearsman Books, 2010)



Doctor Placebo (Shearsman Books, 2010)

Doctor Placebo finds himself at the end of the western intellectual tradition, and on certain mornings feels almost as old. As a medical practitioner he broods about his patients; as a writer he broods about his poems. Sometimes the two intermingle and he can't remember whether he is a doctor moonlighting as a poet, or a poet moonlighting as a doctor. One thing at least remains constant: moonlight. The end of the western intellectual tradition, like Placebo himself, is insomniac.

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