İTLF - İstanbul Tanpınar Litarute Festival 2010

Mark Crick

Due to the chronic asthma that accompanied his childhood Mark Crick’s early education was perhaps distinguished more by his absences than by his achievements. Long sleepless nights spent reading by candlelight often took the place of lessons and Tolkien, Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson were frequent visitors at the young Crick’s bedside. Exhausted by his literary exertions he spent daylight hours lying on the sofa, drinking Cypriot sherry and following the adventures of his classmates: Brer Rabbit, Long John Silver and the long suffering Odysseus. In later childhood his health improved, but reading and literature were by now a firmly rooted part of his life. As a teenager his studies took him to the Petit Lycée Condorcet in Paris, where his eyes were opened to French writers such as Alain-Fournier, Camus, Colette and Cocteau. He later went on to study literature at Warwick University and at the University of London.

After his studies Crick worked as nurse, teacher, carpenter and clerk before beginning his writing career as a freelance photojournalist. His first book, Kafka’s Soup, A History of World Literature in 17 recipes, has been translated into over twenty languages. His second book, Sartre’s Sink, The Great Writers’ Complete book of DIY, was chosen by The Sunday Times as its funny book of the year in 2008. His latest volume, Machiavelli’s Lawn, the Great Writers’ Garden Companion, is the third and final collection of domestic advice written in the style of the literary greats. Together the books stand as an homage to a few of the great writers who have kept him company on many long and breathless nights.