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// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Nathan Filer a writer? Does he file under fiction?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nathan Filer
Born1980 (age 45–46)
EducationUniversity of the West of England
OccupationsWriter, Broadcaster
Writing career
Notable workThe Shock of the Fall
Notable awardsCosta Book of the Year
Betty Trask Prize

Nathan Filer is a British writer and broadcaster best known for his novel, The Shock of the Fall. This won several major literary awards, including the Costa Book of the Year[1] and the Betty Trask Prize.[2] It was a Sunday Times Bestseller, and has been translated into thirty languages.[3]

Life and career

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Filer was born in Bristol in 1980. He attended the Ridings High School, a large secondary school located in the village of Winterbourne in South Gloucestershire.[4] In 2002 he trained as a psychiatric nurse gaining a first class degree in Mental Health Nursing from the University of the West of England[5] and later worked in mental health research at the University of Bristol.[3]

His novel The Shock of the Fall describes the life of a boy from Bristol dealing with his grief at the death of his brother, and experience of mental health care services for schizophrenia.[6][7][8] Reviewing the book in The Psychologist, Caroline Flurey writes, "This is a beautifully poignant book, written with sympathy and sensitivity, well deserving of its Costa Book of the Year award."[9] Filer's subsequent book of non-fiction, The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia, was published by Faber and Faber in 2019. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year[10] and the charity, Rethink Mental Illness, named it as one of their Mental Health Books of the Decade.[11] It was also longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.[12]

Filer writes on a range of issues for The Guardian.[13] A story he wrote for The New York Times[14] that described working with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine was adapted for an episode of the Israeli prime time radio show, Israel Story, featuring Filer and his partner.[15]

His work as a broadcaster includes the 2017 Archive on 4 documentary, The Mind in the Media, in which he explored representations of mental illness and their impact.[16] This was shortlisted for a Mind Media Award in the best radio programme category.[17] In 2021, Filer presented a five-part podcast series called Why Do I Feel? This was a Financial Times Top 10 podcast of the year.[18] It was praised by the paper for 'counterbalancing bleak stories with moments of levity, successfully steering clear of the clichés of most mental health podcasts'.[19] It also won a silver award at the 2022 Radio Academy ARIAS in the 'Best Independent Podcast' category. In 2026, he wrote and presented All Kinds of Minds, a three-part BBC Radio 4 documentary series exploring neurodivergence.[20]

Filer is the recipient of the honorary degree of Master of Letters from the University of the West of England[21] and the honorary degree of Doctor of Liberal Arts from Abertay University.[22] These degrees were conferred in recognition of his role in raising awareness through literature and his commitment to mental health care.[21][22]

He holds a master's degree and PhD from Bath Spa University, where he is a Reader in Creative Writing.[23]

Books

[edit]
  • The Shock of the Fall (HarperFiction, 2013; The Borough Press, 2014)
  • The Heartland (also published as This Book will Change Your Mind about Mental Health [24]) (Faber, 2019)

Audio

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  • The Mind in the Media (BBC, 2017) [16]
  • Why Do I Feel? (Bite Your Tongue Productions, 2021)[19]
  • All Kinds of Minds (BBC, 2026) [20]

Awards and honours

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 "Nathan Filer wins Costa Book of the Year with debut novel". BBC News. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 Lisa Campbell (30 June 2014). "Filer and McBride among SoA award winners". The Bookseller. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  3. 1 2 Lambert, Sophie. "Author: Nathan Filer" (Press release). C&W Agency. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  4. ↑ MacCormick, Ken (29 January 2014). "Bristol author Nathan Filer wins Costa Book of the Year award". Bristol Post. Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Nathan Filer alumnus profile". University of the West of England. 7 September 2015.
  6. ↑ Brown, Mark (28 January 2014). "Costa book award won by Nathan Filer for debut novel, The Shock of the Fall". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  7. ↑ Clark, Nick (28 January 2014). "Costa Book of the Year: Debut novelist Nathan Filer is shock winner of prestigious prize". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Chilton, Martin (7 January 2014). "The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Fluery, C. (2014), "Beautifully poignant", The Psychologist, Vol. 27, No. 6, June 2014, p. 460.
  10. ↑ McConnachie, James (1 December 2019). "The Sunday Times best thought books of the year 2019". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  11. ↑ Illness, Rethink Mental (23 December 2019). "The last in our instalment of our #mentalhealth books of the decade is The Heartland by @nathanfiler Here's our Senior Media Officer, Patrick, with his thoughts pic.twitter.com/VEx7MmXxeA". @Rethink_. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  12. 1 2 "2020 | the Rathbones Folio Prize". Archived from the original on 28 March 2020.
  13. ↑ Nathan Filer. "Profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
  14. ↑ Nathan Filer (21 November 2014). "Rules of Engagement". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  15. ↑ "Episode 12 Now Boarding". 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  16. 1 2 "The Mind in the Media". BBC Radio 4. 4 March 2017.
  17. 1 2 "Mind Media Awards 2017 The Shortlist". Mind. 16 October 2017.
  18. ↑ "Top 10 Podcasts of 2021". FT. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  19. 1 2 "A thoughtful new podcast asks Why Do I Feel?". FT. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  20. 1 2 "All Kinds of Minds". BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
  21. 1 2 3 "UWE awards Honorary Degree to Nathan Filer". University of the West of England. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  22. 1 2 3 "Award-winning author Nathan Filer to receive Honorary degree at Abertay". Abertay University. 25 November 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  23. ↑ "Our People Dr Nathan Filer". Bath Spa University. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  24. ↑ "Faber to rebrand Nathan Filer's mental health book | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  25. ↑ "Bath Spa University Lecturer Nathan Filer recognised at the Specsavers National Book Awards 2014". Bath Chronicle. 28 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  26. ↑ "Writers' Guild Awards: Winners Announced". Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
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