Benjamin Johncock
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Benjamin Johncock was born in England in 1978. His debut novel, THE LAST PILOT, was published in 2015 by Picador (US) and Myriad (UK). It won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award in 2016 and was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book of the Year. It was one of the Observer’s Hidden Gems, People magazine’s Best New Books, a Barnes & Noble Pick, an Amazon Pick, an Indie Next Pick and Ian Rankin’s Book of the Year.
His award-winning short stories have been published by The Fiction Desk, The Junket, Comma Press and Storgy, and his journalism has appeared in the Guardian, The Spectator and many others. He’s a creative writing mentor, teaches creative writing for the National Centre for Writing, and is on the editorial board of The Letters Page, a literary journal edited by Jon McGregor. He is the recipient of several Arts Council England grants and an American Literary Merit Award. He lives in Norwich with his wife, his daughter, and his son.
‘Nostalgic and heart-rending... supercharged Hemingway at 70,000 feet.’ — Washington Post
‘Reading Johncock one is reminded of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and especially of James Salter’s The Hunters. His mastery of the American idiom is perfect. A first-rate novel by a major new talent.’— The Spectator
‘A big, muscular novel... tenderly undercut by the quite different theme of a marriage and a family under unbearable stress... convincing and moving.’ — The Guardian
THE LAST PILOT
Literary Fiction, 315 pages
Picador USA/Myriad UK, July 2015
Early October, 1947: Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force. When a terrible tragedy befalls his young family, Harrison's life grinds to a halt - so when he's offered a ticket to the moon, he takes it. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in modern history, THE LAST PILOT is a mesmerising story of loss and finding courage in the face of it.