Justin Hill

After leaving school, Justin Hill spent seven years as a volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas in rural China and Africa. His first novel, The Drink and Dream Teahouse was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the Top Novels of 2001.  It went on to win the 2003 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the 2002 Betty Trask Award. It has been banned by the Chinese government.

His second novel, Passing Under Heaven, won the 2005 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Encore Award.

Ciao Asmara, a factual account of his time in Eritrea, was shortlisted for the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

In 2001, Justin was listed in the Independent on Sunday's Top 20 Young British Writers.  In October 2005 he was awarded the Xiaoxiang Friendship Award by the Governor of Hunan Province, for his services to China.

His work has been translated into fourteen languages.

His new fiction is set in 11th century England, culminating in the battle of Hastings in 1066. Little, Brown published the first book, Shieldwall in 2011 to critical acclaim and it was named a Sunday Times Book of the Year. The sequel, Viking Fire, was published in 2016 and also named a Sunday Times Book of the Year.