John Sutherland (author) facts for kids

John Andrew Sutherland (born October 9, 1938) is a British professor, author, and newspaper writer. He is famous for his work on classic English literature. He is the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London.

Early Life and Education

John Sutherland was born in London, England. After finishing his studies at the University of Leicester in 1964, he earned a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He started his career as a teacher at Edinburgh.

Sutherland became an expert in Victorian fiction, which are novels written during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). He also specializes in 20th-century literature and the history of book publishing.

A Career in Literature

Solving Literary Puzzles

Sutherland is well-known for a series of books that began with Is Heathcliff a Murderer?. These books are like detective investigations into famous classic novels.

He carefully reads the stories and looks for clues, such as:

• Things that seem out of place or from the wrong time period.
• Mistakes or details the author might have forgotten.
• Hidden meanings that modern readers might miss.

For example, in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Holmes calls a character by the wrong last name. Sutherland suggests this isn't just a simple mistake. He argues it could be a clue that something else is happening in the story that isn't directly stated. His books make reading classic literature feel like solving a fun puzzle.

An Expert on Victorian Books

Sutherland created a huge reference book called the Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. It's like an encyclopedia for novels from the Victorian era. The second edition, published in 2009, includes:

• Information on 900 authors.
• Summaries of more than 600 novels.
• Details about publishers, book reviewers, and what it was like to be a reader back then.

He also worked on the Oxford Companion to Popular Fiction.

Writing and Judging

For many years, Sutherland wrote a regular column for The Guardian newspaper. In 2005, he was the head judge for the Man Booker Prize, one of the most important awards for books in the English language.

He has also written introductions for many classic books in series like Oxford World's Classics and Penguin Classics. He has written about famous authors such as William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and Wilkie Collins.

Notable Books

Sutherland has written many books. Some of his most popular ones include:

• Is Heathcliff a Murderer?: The first in his series of literary detective books.
• The Boy Who Loved Books (2007): An autobiography about his life.
• The Black Arrow (2007): An edition of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel that he edited and explained.
• Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives (2011): A large book with short, interesting biographies of 294 novelists from the last 400 years.

Some of his earlier books were published under the name "J. Sutherland" or "J. A. Sutherland". He should not be confused with another professor named James R. Sutherland.