John Lanchester

John Lanchester

John Lanchester is a British journalist and novelist, born on February 25, 1962, in Hamburg, Germany. He grew up in Hong Kong and was educated in England, attending Gresham’s School in Norfolk and later St John’s College, Oxford. Lanchester has worked in various roles throughout his career, including as a football reporter, obituary writer, book editor, and restaurant critic. He is a contributing editor to the London Review of Books and has written for prominent publications such as The New Yorker, Granta, The Observer, and the Daily Telegraph.

Lanchester’s literary career began with his debut novel, The Debt to Pleasure (1996), which won several awards, including the Whitbread First Novel Award. His subsequent works include the novels Mr Phillips (2000) and Fragrant Harbour (2002), as well as the acclaimed novel Capital (2012), which explores the lives of residents in a London neighborhood during the financial crisis. In addition to fiction, he has written non-fiction books such as Family Romance (2007), a memoir about his mother, and Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay (2010), which discusses the global financial crisis.

Lanchester’s works have been translated into multiple languages, and he has received various accolades for his contributions to literature. He currently lives in London with his wife, historian Miranda Carter, and their two children.

  • Novelist
  • 1962
  • Male
  • 1
  • (0)

    Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

    Whoops! is a witty, unsettling exposé of the modern financial system—how it broke, why no one seemed to notice, and what it says about the stories we tell ourselves about money. With the clarity of a seasoned guide and the humor of someone who’s seen the absurdity up close, it unpacks how brilliant minds and reckless systems collided to trigger a global collapse. At its core is a chilling question: how can something so abstract—numbers, models, jargon—wield such devastating real-world power? This is not just a tale of economic failure, but of human folly dressed in suits and spreadsheets. Can we fix a system built on illusions without first confronting our own?

    • Originally Published: 2010
    • Publisher: Allen Lane, 2010
    • Genre: Non-fiction
    • Pages: 240
    • Book Type: Hardcopy
    • ISBN: 978-1846143229
    • Access: Members