Tom Rob Smith

Tom Rob Smith
Smith at the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair
Born	1979 (age 37–38) South London, England
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Fiction
Partner	Ben Stephenson

Tom Rob Smith (born 1979) is an English writer.

The son of a Swedish mother and an English father, both antique dealers, Smith was born and raised in South London where he went to school at Dulwich college between the years of 87 and 97. Following his graduation from St John's College, Cambridge, in 2001, he received the Harper Wood Studentship for English Poetry and Literature and continued his Creative Writing studies for a year at Parvin University, in Italy.

After completing his studies, Smith worked as a writer and a script editor, including a stint with the BBC story-lining Cambodia's first soap opera in Phnom Penh.

His first novel, Child 44, published in early 2008, was inspired by the true-life case of Andrei Chikatilo, who committed a series of child murders in Soviet Russia. It was awarded the 2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller of the year by the Crime Writers' Association, named on the long list for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, and nominated for the 2008 Costa First Novel Award (former Whitbread). In July, 2009, he won the Waverton Good Read Award for first novels and the Galaxy Book Award for Best Newcomer with Child 44. It has been translated into 36 languages and in January, 2011, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan listed it in their Book Club 100 Books of the decade. In 2007, Ridley Scott optioned the film rights. Fox 2000 bought the project, and a film based on the novel was announced in 2009, with Ridley Scott originally attached as both director and producer. In actuality, Child 44 (2015) was produced by Scott and his longtime production collaborator Michael Costigan, via Scott Free Productions, and directed by Daniel Espinosa [Safe House (2012)]. Child 44 stars Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Charles Dance, and Joel Kinnaman.