Jonathan Smith (novelist)

Jonathan Smith
Born	1942 (age 74–75) Gloucestershire, England
Occupation	Novelist, writer, teacher
Nationality	British
Genre	Historical fiction Semi-autobiographical
Children	2

Jonathan Smith (born 1942) is an English novelist, writer and teacher. A career English teacher, he is best known for his novels and has written numerous radio plays.

Smith was born in Gloucestershire to a family of teachers originally from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. He was educated at Christ College, Brecon and read English at St John's College, Cambridge.

Smith took up his first teaching job at Loretto School near Edinburgh in Scotland. After a brief stint at Melbourne Grammar School in Australia, he taught at Tonbridge School for the rest of his career and was head of English for 17 years. He published several novels during his teaching career before retiring in 2003 to concentrate on writing. His former pupils at Tonbridge include Sir Anthony Seldon, musician Kit Hesketh-Harvey, novelist Vikram Seth, poet Christopher Reid and actor Dan Stevens.

Smith and his wife Gillian have a daughter and a son. His son Ed was his former pupil at Tonbridge and is a former England cricketer and published author.

In 2006, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer, he and his son went on a trip to India. It was the inspiration for his book The Following Game, published in 2011.

His first novel Wilfred and Eileen was adapted for BBC television into a four-part serial.

He also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Summer in February, starring Dominic Cooper, Emily Browning and Dan Stevens, which was released in June 2013.

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