William Sutton

Novelist, musician and tutor, I teach classics and creative writing. My trilogy of historical mysteries, published by Titan Books, unearths subterranean interstices of Victorian London's underworlds. Lawless and the Flowers of Sin was a Book of 2016 in the Mail on Sunday and Morning Star. Although I’m a historical novelist, soaked in historicity, my books reflect crises of today that that we often think unprecedented, e.g. radicalisation, exploitation, homegrown terrorism, immigration panic, political manipulation of xenophobia. crossexamines sociopolitics through literature.

I have written for The Times, The Author and the Fortean Times. I write about language, music and futurology for magazines around the world. My short stories have been published internationally. My plays have been produced for radio and stage. I’ve compered Portsmouth Bookfest’s Day of the Dead, CSI Portsmouth, Valentine’s Day Massacre and Guide to Victorian Sex. In DarkFest, I've compèred Day of the Dead, Dark Songs and Typewriter Tales. I offer writing workshops: william-sutton.co.uk/workshops

I played cricket for Brazil and for the Authors Cricket Club. I play bass for chansonnier Philip Jeays and for band Jamie and the Jets. I’ve acted in the world’s longest play and appeared at Edinburgh Book Festival, Crimefest Bristol, Eton College and Highdown Prison.

I lecture part-time at University of Portsmouth. I have submitted my PhD by Publication in Creative Writing: "Watching the Watchman: Misdirection and Complicity in Neo-Victorian Underworlds." This cross-examines sociopolitics through literature. It uncovers traces in the Victorian Gothic which (like my books) adumbrate concerns of their day, thereby prefiguring today’s: for example, the otherisation of Heathcliff; post-traumatic consequences; the systemic alterity of race and class that is cultivated by privilege.