Alan Kirby: Biography

Alan Kirby was born in Oxford. Entering Balliol College, Oxford to read English, he managed to emerge four years later with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a preference for Wittgenstein over Derrida. After a decade spent teaching in Italy and France he undertook an MA in English at the Sorbonne which included a near book-length study of Martin Amis. Drawing on his experience of life as an expat, he completed his PhD at the University of Exeter on identity shift, masculinity and Britishness in 20th-century British fictions of travel in continental Europe. Today he lives and works in Oxford again, benefiting from the Bodleian's unsurpassable collection to publish peer-reviewed articles on modern and contemporary fiction and culture. He is awaiting the publication of his first book in May 2009 with bated breath, whatever that may be exactly.