Andrew O'Hagan – Year of election 2009

Andrew O’Hagan published his first book, The Missing, in 1995, and has since published four acclaimed novels, including, most recently, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, described by one reviewer as a “marvellously imaginative, clever, entertaining and profoundly melancholy novel”.  O’Hagan says, “Literature was always my boon companion, and I set out to find new voices and new subjects, always remembering Dr. Johnson's dictum that 'there is nothing too small for such a small thing as man'. To be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, to sit among my heroes, is both a great honour and a giant spur.”