Jamal Mahjoub

Jamal Mahjoub was born in London in 1960 to a British mother and Sudanese father. He spent his formative years in Khartoum before being awarded a scholarship to Atlantic College in Wales. He went on to study Geology at Sheffield University. He returned briefly to the Sudan in search of employment after which he decided to dedicate himself to writing.
Since then Mahjoub has lived in a number of places, including London, Denmark and currently Spain. He has worked in a variety of sectors to support his writing, including telemarketing, catering and futon making and has also worked as a librarian, freelance journalist and translator from Arabic, Danish and Catalan.  His work has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch and Turkish. Travelling With Djinns (Chatto & Windus 2003) won the Prix de l’Astrolabe award at the Etonnants Voyageurs Festival in France in 2004. The Cartographer’s Angel won the Heinemann/Guardian African Short Story Prize in 1993. The short story The Obituary Tango was shortlisted for the Caine Prize 2005. His latest novel, The Drift Latitudes (Chatto & Windus) was published in 2006.