Andrew Miller (writer)
{{short description|British journalist and author (born 1974)}}
{{For|the author of the 18th century-set novels Ingenious Pain (1997) and Pure (2011)|Andrew Miller (novelist)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{infobox person
|name = Andrew Miller
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}
|birth_place = London, United Kingdom
|occupation = Writer
|alma_mater = University of Cambridge
Princeton University
}}
Andrew Miller (born 1974) is a British journalist and author, best known for his debut novel, Snowdrops, published under the name A.D. Miller. He studied literature at Cambridge and Princeton and worked in television before joining The Economist magazine as a reporter in 2000.
Fiction
Snowdrops, an "amorality tale" set in Moscow, was published in 2011. The story is narrated by Nick Platt, a British lawyer working in Russia in the mid-noughties; Platt becomes involved with a woman he meets on the metro and is caught up in a pair of ruthless scams. It was the first novel to be shortlisted for both the Booker Prize{{cite web |date=6 September 2011 |title=Man Booker 2011 Shortlist |url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/shortlist |accessdate=4 January 2012 |publisher=Themanbookerprize.com}} for fiction and the CWA Gold Dagger.{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=19 August 2011 |title=Males in the frame as Gold Dagger shortlist revealed |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/19/gold-dagger-shortlist-revealed |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}} The novel was also nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards,{{Cite web |last=Twitter |date=21 February 2012 |title=2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists announced |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/jacket-copy/story/2012-02-21/2011-los-angeles-times-book-prize-finalists-announced |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} the James Tait Black Memorial Prize{{Cite web |title=Literary prize winners announced |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/james-tait-black-250812 |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=The University of Edinburgh |language=en}} and the Galaxy National Book Awards.{{Cite web |last= |title=Galaxy National Book Awards |url=https://www.galaxynationalbookawards.com/ |access-date=10 April 2023 |website= |language=}}
Snowdrops received generally favourable reviews. A review in the Independent called it "an electrifying tour of the dark side of Moscow, and of human nature".{{Cite web |date=7 January 2011 |title=Snowdrops, By AD Miller |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/snowdrops-by-ad-miller-2177729.html |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=The Independent |language=en}} The Financial Times described it as a "superlative portrait of a country in which everything has its price".{{Cite web |last=Turpin |first=Adrian |date=9 January 2011 |title=Snowdrops |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f3d22cde-19e7-11e0-a8d8-00144feab49a |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=Financial Times}} The novel was translated into 25 languages. It was selected as a 'book of the year' for 2011 in the Financial Times,{{Cite web |date=2 December 2011 |title=Tales for under the tree |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f4d060dc-1780-11e1-b00e-00144feabdc0 |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=Financial Times}} the Observer {{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=4 December 2011 |title=Books for giving: thrillers |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/04/books-christmas-presents-thrillers-reviews |access-date=23 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}} and the Spectator,{{Cite web |last=Spectator |first=The |date=12 November 2011 |title=Books of the Year {{!}} 12 November 2011 |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/books-of-the-year-12-november-2011/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}} among other publications.
The Faithful Couple, Miller's second novel, was published in 2015. A review in the Financial Times called it "gripping, affecting and memorable".{{Cite news |date=6 March 2015 |title=‘The Faithful Couple’, by AD Miller |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/791f9f18-c0cc-11e4-876d-00144feab7de |access-date=10 April 2023}} The Times said it was "studded with little zingers or evocative phrases that encapsulate something bigger".{{Cite news |last=Millen |first=Robbie |title=The Faithful Couple by AD Miller |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/the-faithful-couple-by-ad-miller-8j5jndn77bd |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0140-0460}} Miller's third novel, Independence Square, set during the Orange Revolution in Kyiv, was published in 2020. In the Spectator, David Patrikarakos said it was "a book about truth and lies, about dirty money and the manipulation of politics".{{Cite web |last=Patrikarakos |first=David |date=8 February 2020 |title=Dirty money and political manipulation: Independence Square, by A.D. Miller, reviewed |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/dirty-money-and-political-manipulation-independence-square-by-a-d-miller-reviewed/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}} In the Guardian, Marcel Theroux said "Independence Square made me think of a 21st-century Graham Greene novel, an absorbing thriller informed by emotional intelligence and a deep understanding of geopolitics".{{Cite news |last=Theroux |first=Marcel |date=19 February 2020 |title=Independence Square by AD Miller review – thriller in post-Soviet Ukraine |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/19/independence-square-ad-miller-review |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}} In the Washington Post, Ron Charles described it as "a double helix of espionage and regret".{{Cite news |title=Review {{!}} A.D. Miller’s ‘Independence Square’ imagines how one diplomat tried to secretly manage Ukraine’s revolution |language=en-US |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/ad-millers-independence-day-imagines-how-one-diplomat-tried-to-secretly-manage-ukraines-revolution/2020/02/18/9e3394d2-49be-11ea-bdbf-1dfb23249293_story.html |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0190-8286}}
Non-fiction
Miller's first book, published in 2006, was The Earl of Petticoat Lane, a family memoir about "immigration, class, the Blitz, love, memory and the underwear industry."[http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/earlofpetticoatlane/index.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104110413/http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/earlofpetticoatlane/index.html|date=4 January 2010}} It was shortlisted for the Wingate Prize for books on Jewish themes.{{Cite web |title=Book awards: JQ Wingate Prize Shortlist {{!}} LibraryThing |url=https://www.librarything.com/ |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=LibraryThing.com |language=en}}
In the Sunday Times, Susie Boyt called the book "family history of the best sort, the subject matter vastly appealing, the writing intelligent and clear...At the heart of this memoir looms the extraordinary figure of Miller's grandfather, whom the author presents with a novelist's sensitivity and power”.{{Cite news |last=BOYT |first=SUSIE |title=Briefs encounter |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/briefs-encounter-pkhfqvqz6th |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0140-0460}} In the New Statesman, Linda Grant said "there are three good reasons to buy and read this book: first, it must be the best-documented account of the class trajectory of British Jewry in the 20th century; second, it throws valuable light on contemporary debates about immigration and asylum... and third, it is a fantastically interesting and well-written story”.{{cite web|last=Grant |first=Linda |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200606120054 |title=The route to the top|publisher=New Statesman|accessdate=24 November 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605223323/http://www.newstatesman.com/200606120054|archivedate=5 June 2011}}
Miller is the author of introductions to novellas by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for the Hesperus Press. He has served as a judge for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, for non-fiction about the Russian world (2013), and for the Wingate Prize (2021).{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=Jewish News |title=Reform leader Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner to chair Wingate Prize judging panel |url=https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/reform-leader-rabbi-laura-janner-klausner-to-chair-wingate-prize-judging-panel/ |access-date=10 April 2023 |website=www.jewishnews.co.uk |language=en-US}}
Journalism
At The Economist, Miller originally wrote about British politics and culture. In 2004 he was appointed Moscow correspondent, and covered, among other things, the Yukos affair and the Orange Revolution. He returned to the UK in 2007 to become The Economist's political editor and Bagehot columnist.{{cite news |title=Media directory |publisher=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/mediadirectory/listing.cfm?journalistID=9 |accessdate=24 November 2011}} He has since been the magazine's correspondent in the American South and its Culture Editor. Since 2021 he has written Back Story, The Economist
Miller has written for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph and Spectator, among other publications. In 2014 "Midnight in Nowheresville",{{Cite news |title=Midnight in Nowheresville |work=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2013/12/21/midnight-in-nowheresville |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0013-0613}} his article about spending 24 hours at a motorway service station, won Travel Story of the Year at the Foreign Press Association Media Awards.{{Cite news |title=Andrew Miller |work=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/britain/2014/11/27/andrew-miller |access-date=10 April 2023 |issn=0013-0613}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Andrew}}
Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge