威尔·塞尔夫

威尔·塞尔夫（英语：Will Self，1961年9月26日—）是英国小说家和专栏作家。

生平小传

威尔·塞尔夫生于英国英格兰伦敦。父亲彼德·塞尔夫（Peter Self）曾是伦敦政治经济学院的经济学家，母亲伊莱恩·罗森布鲁姆（Elaine Rosenbloom）是美国犹太移民，兄长强纳森·塞尔夫（Jonathan Self）亦是作家。威尔·塞尔夫曾表示他幼小时的家庭关系并不愉快，他在三岁时曾企图离家出走，并在少年时期身染毒瘾。

当塞尔夫在牛津大学艾克塞特学院取得哲学学士学位后，他已染上海洛因瘾。塞尔夫的首篇短篇小说，1991年出版的《疯狂的数量理论》，是他离开戒毒中心后所完成的。

塞尔夫两次结婚，并共有四位子女。

获奖经历

威尔·塞尔夫的《疯狂的数量理论》获得了1993年的费伯纪念奖，《给顽强男孩的坚固玩具》获得了1998年的阿迦汗小说奖，而《The Butt》获得了2008年的博林格沃德豪斯喜剧小说奖。

著作

小说

《伟大的猩猩》（Great Apes，1997年）

《死人的生活》（How the Dead Live，2000年）

《道林：一场模仿》（暂译，原名Dorian: An Imitation，2002年）

《The Butt》（2008年）

短篇集

《疯狂的数量理论》（The Quantity Theory of Insanity，1991年）

《给顽强男孩的坚固玩具》（Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys，1998年）

William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Self is currently an honorary Professor at Brunel University London, where his interests include psychogeography.

His 2002 novel Dorian, an Imitation was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and his 2012 novel Umbrella was shortlisted. His fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque and fantastical, and is predominantly set within his home city of London. His writing often explores mental illness, drug abuse and psychiatry.

Self is a regular contributor to publications including The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times and the London Review of Books. He has been a columnist for The Observer, The Times, the New Statesman, the Evening Standard and The New European. His columns for Building Design on the built environment, and for The Independent Magazine on the psychology of place brought him to prominence as a thinker concerned with the politics of urbanism.

Self has also been a regular contributor to British television, initially as a guest on comic panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. In 2002, Self replaced Mark Lamarr on the BBC comedy panel show Shooting Stars for two series, but was himself replaced by comedian Jack Dee when the programme returned in 2008. He has since appeared on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time. Self was a contributor to the former BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View, to which he contributed radio essays delivered in his familiar "lugubrious tones". In 2013, Self took part in discussions about becoming the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence, but later withdrew.

Early life

Self was born in Charing Cross Hospital and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb. His parents were Peter John Otter Self, Professor of Public Administration at the London School of Economics, and Elaine Rosenbloom, from Queens, New York, who worked as a publisher's assistant. His paternal grandfather was Sir Albert Henry Self. Self spent a year living in Ithaca in upstate New York.

Self's parents separated when he was nine, and divorced when he was 18. Despite the intellectual encouragement given by his parents, he was an emotionally confused and self-destructive child, self-harming with burns from cigarette embers and cuts from knives before beginning to use drugs.

Self was a voracious reader from a young age. When he was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Into his teenage years, Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", which stifled his ability to express himself. Self's use of drugs increased in step with his prolific reading. He started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, progressing by way of amphetamines, cocaine and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18. Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient.

Self attended University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead. He later attended Christ's College, Finchley, from where he went to Exeter College, Oxford, reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics and graduated with a third-class degree. At Oxford, he was editor of and frequent contributor to an underground left-wing student newspaper called Red Herring/Oxford Strumpet, copies of which are archived in the Bodleian Library.