Adam Mars-Jones | Granta Magazine

Adam Mars-Jones

Adam Mars-Jones is a writer and critic living in London. He was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 1983 and 1993. His fiction includes Box Hill and Batlava Lake, which are short, and Pilcrow and Cedilla, the expansive first parts of a semi-infinite novel. The third instalment, Caret, will be published in August 2023.

Adam Mars-Jones on Granta.com

Essays & Memoir | Issue 164
Essays & Memoir | Issue 164

The Index of Porosity

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Is there in fact a jostling for dominance between the art forms, some barely suppressed competitiveness?’

Adam Mars-Jones on music and ceremony.

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’

Adam Mars-Jones

‘When I was put on Granta’s first Best of Young British Novelists list in 1983, no novel of mine had been published.’

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

What I’m Listening To

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Obscure repertoire is a sensible hiding-place for mediocre technique.’

Fiction | The Online Edition padlock
Fiction | The Online Edition padlock

Everything Is Different in Your House

Adam Mars-Jones

‘At the end of the year, an ambulance brought Suseela home from hospital to die’.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 104 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 104 padlock

Portrait of My Father

Adam Mars-Jones

‘I put my trophy on a high shelf, and at some stage laid it face down.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 86 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 86 padlock

Quiet, Please

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Film music can be stained glass or wallpaper.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 55 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 55 padlock

Blind Bitter Happiness

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Sheila was both a wanted and an unwanted child.’

Fiction | Issue 43 padlock
Fiction | Issue 43 padlock

Neighbours

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Terry and I entertained hundreds of couples over the years, and I don't think we were unusual.‘

Fiction | Issue 38 padlock
Fiction | Issue 38 padlock

Bears in Mourning

Adam Mars-Jones

‘When I think about it, it was terrible the way we behaved when Victor died. We behaved as if we were ashamed of him, or angry.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 27 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 27 padlock

Baby Clutch

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Endlessly we reformulate our feelings for each other.’

Fiction | Issue 22 padlock
Fiction | Issue 22 padlock

Remission

Adam Mars-Jones

‘There's an awkward interval, when you're ill but not yet conditioned by illness.’

Fiction | Issue 19 padlock
Fiction | Issue 19 padlock

Slim

Adam Mars-Jones

‘My African family doesn't have the money for photographs. My African family may never even have seen a photograph.’

Fiction | Issue 14 padlock
Fiction | Issue 14 padlock

Weaning

Adam Mars-Jones

‘As he grew up he would drink, and likewise urinate, without embarrassment. Snacks, so long as they were light and informal, were liquids: casual and seemly.’

Fiction | Issue 7
Fiction | Issue 7

Trout Day By Pumpkin Light

Adam Mars-Jones

‘He is as old as sin, if sin is twenty-six.’

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