Timothy Mo
Born to a British mother and a Hong Kong father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10, when he moved to Britain. Educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, Mo worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist. His works have won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction), and three of his novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.
Also recorded as Timothy Peter Mo
Timothy Mo
- Name
- Timothy Mo
- Birth Name
- Timothy Peter Mo
- Born
- 30 December 1950
- Occupation
- Novelist
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Education
- St John's College · Mill Hill School
- Honours
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize · Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize · E. M. Forster Award · Hawthornden Prize
- Languages
- English
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Documentary summary
Born to a British mother and a Hong Kong father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10, when he moved to Britain. Educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, Mo worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist. His works have won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction), and three of his novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.
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Note VALÉORINE
Timothy Mo (born 1950) is a journalist, novelist and writer, of British nationality. The journalist was born in Hong Kong.
Timothy Mo was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College. The journalist worked in Greater London.
Languages used include English. Honours include Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Hawthornden Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1392021 · wikipedia · Timothy Mo
In this article
Biography
Biography
Mo was also the recipient of the 1992 E. His novel An Insular Possession (1986) was among the contenders in The Telegraphs list of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. In the early 1990s Mo became increasingly mistrustful of his publishers and increasingly outspoken about the publishing industry in general. Since 1994 when he rejected a £125,000 advance from Random House for his next novel, he has self-published his books under the label "Paddleless Press". His first novel to be self-published was Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard.
Timothy Mo studied at St John's College and Mill Hill School. The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are Greater London. Distinctions recorded are James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, E. Forster Award and Hawthornden Prize.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Timothy Mo • Birth Name — Timothy Peter Mo • Born — 30 December 1950 • Occupation — Novelist • Period — 1978–present • Genre — Fiction
Background
Background
Mo has been described as a British Asian author.
Novels
Novels
• The Monkey King (1978) • Sour Sweet (1982), filmed as Soursweet in 1988 • An Insular Possession (1986) • The Redundancy of Courage (1991) • Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard (1995) • Renegade or Halo2 (2000) • Pure (2012)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1950
Timothy Mo born at Hong Kong.
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Timothy Mo received James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, E. Forster Award and Hawthornden Prize.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1392021: Timothy Mo
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Timothy Mo”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Timothy Mo (born 1950), Contemporary British Novelists, 2004
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2004
Awards
• 1979: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for The Monkey King • 1982: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for Sour Sweet • 1982: Hawthornden Prize for Sour Sweet • 1986: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for An Insular Possession • 1991: Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) for The Redundancy of Courage • 1992: E. M. Forster Award • 1999: James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) for Renegade or Halo2
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.一個人一個故事：消失12年 Timothy Mo新作面世. Apple Daily. November 2022.
- 2.According to "Timothy Mo" in Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, (16 June 2004 update), some sources give his year of birth as 1953
- 3.Nick Rennison. Contemporary British novelists. Routledge. 101–3. 2005. 978-0-415-21709-5.
- 4.10 best Asian novels of all time. The Telegraph. 22 April 2014.
- 5.Tonkin, Boyd (22 October 2011). "Timothy Mo - Postcards from the edge". The Independent. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
- 6.Foran, Charles (22 June 2012). "The rise and fall, and rise again, of the mysterious Timothy Mo". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
- 7.Books by ISBN Paddleless Press
- 8.Tamara S. Wagner. British Asian Fiction: Framing the Contemporary. Cambria Press. 165. 2008. 978-1604975413.
- 9.British Council. Timothy Mo British Council Literature.
- 10.American Academy of Arts and Letters. American Academy of Arts and Letters - Award Winners.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Timothy Mo (born 1950), Contemporary British Novelists, 2004Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1392021: Timothy MoWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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