Jonathan Falla

Jonathan Falla
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Genre	Historical fiction
Notable works	Blue Poppies Poor Mercy True Love & Bartholomew
Spouse	Rona McCarthy
Website
jonathanfalla.co.uk

Jonathan Falla is an English writer based in Fife, Scotland.

In 2001, Falla published his debut novel, Blue Poppies. His second novel, Poor Mercy, was published in 2005. He has also written a number of short stories and plays including Topokana Martyrs Day (first produced at the Bush Theatre, London, in 1982, and subsequently in Salisbury, Los Angeles, New York and for the BBC World Service), and the screenplay for The Hummingbird Tree, a feature filmed by the BBC in Trinidad and first screened in 1991. In 2007, he was shortlisted for the National Short Story Prize for his short story The Morena.

Falla was born in 1954 in Jamaica. He won a scholarship to study English literature and the History of Western Art at Cambridge University from 1973-77 and in 1978 began work as a language advisor and editor for an educational publisher in Bandung, Java. In 1992 he was the recipient of a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Southern California. As a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund he worked as a language advisor at Dundee University from 2006-2009, and from 2009 to 2020 was the Director of the Creative Writing Summer Schools at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He taught Creative Writing and Humanities for the Open University UK.

In addition to writing, he is trained in paediatric and tropical nursing and has worked for aid and medical agencies in Indonesia, Nepal, Sudan, Myanmar, and Uganda. Much of his writing is informed by this experience and by extensive travels in Asia, Africa and the Americas. He is married and has one son.

Publications

Fiction and Drama

• Blue Poppies. 11:9. 2001. ISBN 1-903238-5-52.
• Poor Mercy. Birlinn. 2005. ISBN 9781904598282.
• Glenfarron. Two Ravens Press. 2008. ISBN 9781906120337.
• Topokana Martyrs' Day (stage play). Stupor Mundi. 2011.
• The Physician of Sanlúcar. Aurora Metro Books. 2013. ISBN 9781906582388.
• The White Porcupine. Stupor Mundi. 2015. ISBN 978-0-9510596-1-6.
• The Morena and Other Stories. Stupor Mundi Books. 2017.
• Terraferma: & Other Stories. Stupor Mundi. 2017. ISBN 9780951059685.
• Good News from Riga. Stupor Mundi Books. 2018. ISBN 978-1977055712.
• Wooden Baby. Stupor Mundi. 2023.
• The Hummingbird Tree (BBC Screen One screenplay 1992). Stupor Mundi Books. 2022. ISBN 9798426920255.

Nonfiction

• {{Cite book |title=Hall in the Heart: A Fife village Hall and its Community |date=2014 |Stupor Mundi Books.
• Zithers, Mosquitoes: Essays & Reviews 1982-2021. Stupor Mundi Books. 29 March 1991. ISBN 978-0-521-39019-4.
• True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border. Cambridge University Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-521-39019-4.
• The Craft of Fiction: How to Become a Novelist. Aber Publishing. 2011. ISBN 978-1-84285-104-3.
• Luck of the Devil: Flying Swordfish in WW2: the memoirs of Robert Le Page (editor). Pen & Swords Books. 2011. ISBN 9781848845442.
• Beyond the Roadblocks: Squibs & Long Shots 1984-2015. Stupor Mundi Books. 2017. ISBN 9781973521006.
• Saama: Innocents in Asia. Stupor Mundi. 2018. ISBN 9781973521006.