Susan Hill

Born: 5 February 1942
Prizes judged: The Booker Prize 2011
The Booker Prize 1975

Dame Susan Hill is a novelist and publisher who was Booker Prize-shortlisted in 1972 for The Bird of Night. As a judge: ‘I took the mountain of submitted novels on my honeymoon’

Hill is best known for her ghost story The Woman in Black – which has sold prolifically, been adapted for film and, as a play, has been running for some 25 years in the West End. Nevertheless, she doesn’t believe in ghosts: ‘I wrote ghost stories because I’d always enjoyed reading them and they seemed to be fizzling out… I don’t take them terribly seriously.’ She has also written a series of crime novels featuring the detective Simon Serrailler. Hill is known for her no-nonsense views on politics and society which she airs to a devoted and substantial following on twitter. Hill’s novel I’m the King of the Castle was longlisted for The Lost Man Booker Prize.