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Toby Litt

Goodreads Author

Born

Bedfordshire, England, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.tobylitt.com/

Twitter

tobylitt

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Influences

Muriel Spark, Virginia Woolf, Claire-Louise Bennett, Samuel Beckett, O ...more

Member Since

November 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/toby_litt

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Toby Litt was born in Bedfordshire, England. He studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia where he was taught by Malcolm Bradbury, winning the 1995 Curtis Brown Fellowship.

He lived in Prague from 1990 to 1993 and published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Adventures in Capitalism, in 1996.

In 2003 Toby Litt was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

In 2018, he published Wrestliana, his memoir about wrestling, writing, losing and being a man.

His novel, A Writer's Diary, was published by Galley Beggar Press on January 1st 2022.

A Writer's Diary continues daily on Substack.

He lives in London and is the Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton. ...more

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Combine Editions
Toby Litt’s books

Average rating: 3.53 · 8,225 ratings · 896 reviews · 87 distinct works • Similar authors

	Dead Boy Detectives, Volume 1: Schoolboy Terrors by Toby Litt (Goodreads Author) (Writer), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator) 3.48 avg rating — 1,039 ratings — published 2013 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	deadkidsongs 3.85 avg rating — 784 ratings — published 2001 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Corpsing 3.32 avg rating — 481 ratings — published 2000 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dead Boy Detectives, Volume 2: Ghost Snow by Toby Litt (Goodreads Author) (Artist), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator), Ryan Kelly (Illustrator) 3.72 avg rating — 418 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Patience 4.15 avg rating — 295 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hospital 3.35 avg rating — 345 ratings — published 2007 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay 3.46 avg rating — 268 ratings — published 2008 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beatniks 3.17 avg rating — 267 ratings — published 1997 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Finding Myself 3.15 avg rating — 255 ratings — published 2003 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dead Boy Detectives by Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham by Toby Litt (Goodreads Author), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator) 3.70 avg rating — 157 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Toby Litt's Blog

On a Benediction

This is something I’ve been yearning to share for over two years.

I hope those of you who’ve been following the Writer’s Diary will understand.

It’s something I’m proud of and which still moves me.

Whilst I was writing the first draft of A Writer’s Diary, partly during the early lockdowns, one entry in particular came straight out as a little piece that I felt would have a wider life. I had a suspici

Toby is Currently Reading

Toby Litt is currently reading

House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories

by Yasunari Kawabata

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Aug 04, 2026 01:49AM

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They: A Sequence of Unease

by Kay Dick

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Jul 28, 2026 01:37PM

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Minor Detail

by Adania Shibli

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Jul 27, 2026 01:03PM

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Toby Litt started reading House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Toby Litt rated a book it was ok The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Toby Litt rated a book did not like it Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I love Treasure Island, and Stevenson's prose. But, really? There are some good-ish passages. But the book is broken-backed and unfocussed. I wanted to like it but didn't. ...more
Aug 03, 2026 01:24PM · like · see review
Toby Litt is starting Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Toby Litt wants to read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Toby Litt rated a book it was ok Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 30, 2026 02:51PM · 1 like · like
Toby Litt wants to read Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3) by Lee Child (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 30, 2026 02:47AM · 1 like · like
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Quotes by Toby Litt (?)

“Conversely, bad writers often write in order to forward a cause or enlarge other people’s understanding of a contemporary social issue. Any attempt to write fiction in order to make the world a better, fairer place is almost certain to fail.”
― Toby Litt

tags: baad-writing, criticism, writing, writing-process

2 likes

“...the pleasures of literary fiction are the pleasures of orientation; the pleasures of literature are the pleasures of bewilderment.”
― Toby Litt

tags: literary-fiction, literature

0 likes

“Bad writing is almost always a love poem addressed by the self to the self. The person who will admire it first and last and most is the writer herself.”
― Toby Litt

tags: bad-writing, criticism, writing

0 likes

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