BREAKING NEWS: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Author Reflects on Novel’s 20th Anniversary and Fantasy’s Escape .giang

• Susanna Clarke, author of bestselling fantasy novels like Piranesi and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, published her debut novel in 2004
• The author spoke with the New York Times for the 20th anniversary of Jonathan Strange, and also looked back on her writing career
• “I didn’t think that people would be interested in Strange and Art. It seemed quite a long way from what other people were doing,” Clarke said of the now-acclaimed novel

English author Susanna Clarke burst onto the literary scene in her mid-forties when she published the 800-page fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. But the writer was initially unsure about the success of her now-acclaimed 2004 debut.

In a Nov. 6 episode of the New York Times’ Culture Desk show, re-published on Dec. 27, the author looked back on her career with reporter Alexandra Alter, as well as the origins of Jonathan Strange, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024.

Clarke, now 65, grew up in a household where “displays of emotion were discouraged.” Her family moved to various towns across England and Scotland throughout her childhood, and she turned to fantasy novels.

“This is a bit of a sweeping comment, but a lot of literature of the late 20th century was hyper-focused on the human,” Clarke said. “That was sort of deemed the only thing that that novel should be about, was about human feelings and human reactions and human relationships. And fantasy, I think, particularly with [C.S.] Lewis and [J.R.R.] Tolkien and people who followed, allows you to look away from the human to the other.”

Clarke went on to study politics, economics and philosophy at Oxford College. Though she wrote on the side, Clarke noted that she often couldn’t finish her projects and almost gave up writing. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when she taught English in Spain, that she found herself turning back to the books of her childhood. Clarke realized that she wanted to move back to England to write and she began working on Jonathan Strange.

“I kinda think what I do is so peculiar and a product of my rather peculiar imagination,” Clarke said. “I didn’t think that people would be interested in [the novel]. It seemed quite a long way from what other people were doing.”

The novel, about two rival magicians trying to alter 19th-century Britain with their craft, would go on to sell 4 million copies. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and earned a nomination for the Booker Prize. The book also cemented Clarke as one of today’s most beloved fantasy novelists.

“In literature and in fantasy, there was some representation of emotion that was ecstasy and terror and fear and loathing and love,” Clarke said of the fantasy genre. “And I think a lot of what people look for in different sorts of art is emotion. It’s color.”

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Soon after she finished her book tour, Clarke began to experience dizziness and nausea, and later collapsed. The author was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, which made it difficult for her to work on her next projects. It was the 2015 BBC TV adaptation of Jonathan Strange that helped her regain her confidence as a writer, she said.

“I was invited to go up to Yorkshire to see them film it,” Clarke said. “And that was kind of a revelation, partly because I sort of arrived, then I got treated as an author, which I really no longer thought of myself as. I just thought to myself as this ill woman. That was a bit of a turning point.”

“I just felt, well, maybe I can write again,” Clarke added. “These people seem to think I’m a writer. Possibly, I am.”

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Clarke would later write the 2006 short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, 2020 bestseller Piranesi, and the 2024 illustrated story The Wood at Midwinter.

Although Clarke teased that she’s at work on another book in the Jonathan Strange universe, she is firm about writing what she desires.

“I’ve only ever had any success by doing my own weird thing, following the path that’s in front of me,” she said. “Somebody said to me, ‘Pray the way you can, not the way you think you’re supposed to.’ And I think that’s the same for writing. Write the way you can and not the way people tell you you are supposed to.”