The Writers of Wales Database

CONRADI, PETER

Peter Conradi studied at the University of East Anglia, Sussex University and UCL, and currently lives near Presteigne, Powys. He lectured in English at a number of universities both in the UK and abroad. He was appointed as a Professor in 1992 and since retiring in 1997 has enjoyed a Visiting Research Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford and a Honorary Research Fellowship at UCL. He was appointed the Emeritus Professor of English at Kingston University in 1997. He was also invited back to Kingston to lecture postgraduates in 2004. Peter’s main teaching interests are nineteenth and twentieth century literature, especially fiction, and Shakespeare. 

Peter has reviewed for the Guardian, Evening Standard, New Statesman, TLS, Independent and Independent–on–Sunday, and has also done radio-journalism (e.g. on both Radio 3 and 4). He is the non-fiction judge for the 2006 Glen-Dimplex Literary Awards.

Reviews:
With respect to At the Bright Hem of God: Radnorshire Pastoral (Seren, 2009)

“…Vibrant and charming. A mysterious, perfect fit between writer and landscape. His love for the place shines out…”
Rose Tremain

"…Imbued with the author's intimate knowledge and love of the Welsh Border country, Conradi's new book is rich in insights, surprises and delights…"
James Roose-Evans

"…Conradi writes thoughtfully and non-judgementally even when dealing with contentious matters of Welsh politics and cultural identity. He is glad to quote Bidgood's declaration that she did not come to this area to escape the world: "This is the world." Completed by Simon Dorrell's exquisite pen-and-ink miniatures, it is the perfect primer to this quiet stretch of Wales..."
Nicholas Murray, The Independent


Selected Publications:
John Fowles (Methuen, 1983)
The Saint and the Artist: a Study of the Fiction of Iris Murdoch (Macmillan, 1987)
Dostoevsky (Macmillan, 1988)
Angus Wilson In Writers and their Works (Northcote House, 1997)
Iris Murdoch: a Life (Harper-Collins, 2001)
Going Buddhist: Panic and Emptiness, the Buddha and Me (Short Books, 2004)
Murdoch in Wales (Transactions of Radnorshire Society, 2006)
At the Bright Hem of God: Radnorshire Pastoral (Seren, 2009)  

Contributed to:
Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature by Iris Murdoch (editor) (Chatto & Windus, 1997)
Cold War, Common Pursuit (editor with Stoddard Martin) (Starhaven, 1998)
Love in a Wych Elm & Other Stories by H.E. Bates (foreword) (Capuchin, 2009)
Iris Murdoch - A Writer at War: The Letters and Diaries of Iris Murdoch: 1939-1945 (editor) (Short Books, 2010)




At the Bright Hem of God: Radnorshire Pastoral (Seren, 2009) 

Peter Conradi fell in love with Radnorshire on his first visit in 1965 and At the Bright Hem of God is by way of being his love-letter to mid-Wales. His book covers, within its autobiographical frame, an account of the history and religious life of the area as reflected through writers of the county and its adjacent areas.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover