Mr Francis Spufford
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year: 1992
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
The Wingate Scholarship I won in 1992 helped me finish my first book, ‘I May Be Some Time’, about the British obsession with polar explorers. It was published in 1995, and promptly won several other prizes and awards. I'll always be grateful for the start that winning a Wingate gave me. I've gone on writing for a living, very happily, ever since: books and essays and a couple of literary anthologies. But never again have I experienced anything like the downpour of good luck that fell on me on at my first outing in print. My theory is that, in some mysterious way, a Wingate Scholarship must have rain-making powers...