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Charlie Lovett

Goodreads Author

Born

in Winston-Salem, The United States

Website

http://charlielovett.com/

Twitter

CharlieLovett42

Genre

Historical Fiction, Mystery

Influences

A. S Byatt
John Irving
Charles Dickens
Robertson Davies
Jane Austen

Member Since

March 2013

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I was born in Winston-Salem, NC and grew up as the child of an English professor. We spent our summers in the rural North Carolina mountains, so I felt an early affinity for the countryside. I was educated at Summit School, Woodberry Forest School (VA), and Davidson College (NC) and in 1984 went into the antiquarian book business with my first wife, Stephanie. About the same time I began to seriously collect books and other materials relating to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

When I left the book business in the early 90s, I continued to be a book collector, and now have a large (and growing) collection of rare (and not so rare) books and artifacts connected to Lewis Carroll and his world.

In 1997 I received my MFA I was born in Winston-Salem, NC and grew up as the child of an English professor. We spent our summers in the rural North Carolina mountains, so I felt an early affinity for the countryside. I was educated at Summit School, Woodberry Forest School (VA), and Davidson College (NC) and in 1984 went into the antiquarian book business with my first wife, Stephanie. About the same time I began to seriously collect books and other materials relating to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

When I left the book business in the early 90s, I continued to be a book collector, and now have a large (and growing) collection of rare (and not so rare) books and artifacts connected to Lewis Carroll and his world.

In 1997 I received my MFA in Writing from Vermont College (now Vermont College of Fine Arts). During my work on this degree I researched and wrote Love, Ruth, a book about my mother, Ruth Candler Lovett, who died when I was two years old. Maya Angelou called the book “tender, sensitive, and true.”

After completing my MFA, I traveled with my wife, Janice, and daughter, Jordan, to England where we lived for six months in Kingham, Oxfordshire. We immersed ourselves in the culture and made lifelong friends. Ten years later, we purchased the cottage we had rented in 1997 and renovated it. My wife and I now spend about 6–8 weeks a year in Kingham, and have traveled extensively throughout the UK.

In 2001, my wife was hired to oversee the third grade drama program at Summit School. Bemoaning the dearth of good material, she asked if I would write a play. Thus began my career as a children’s playwright. For eleven years, as Writer-in-Residence, I wrote plays for third graders and for eighth and ninth graders. Nineteen of my plays have been published and have proved extremely popular and have seen over 3500 productions in all fifty states and more than 20 foreign countries.

During all my years as a writer, I have worked on writing fiction. I wrote my first novel-length manuscript in the early 1990s and, with luck, it will never see the light of day, but it did prove to me that I could write a book-length work of fiction. In 2008, my novel The Program, about an evil weight loss clinic, was published by the micro-press Pearlsong Press, which later published my YA novel The Fat Lady Sings.

But my big break-through as a writer came when I put together two of my passions—rare books and the English countryside—to write The Bookman’s Tale. It was a New York Times bestseller, a Barnes and Noble Recommends selection, and has been translated into several foreign languages. Parade Magazine called the book “[A] delightful tale of love and bibliophilia.”

My next novel, First Impressions, is another literary adventure, this one starring Jane Austen. People Magazine called it “a delightful novel that weaves together a modern love story and a literary mystery involving Jane Austen.”

2015 was a busy year for me, being the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I curated a major exhibition called Alice Live! at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. I spoke at the international gathering of Carroll enthusiasts in New York and wrote the introduction to the new Penguin Books edition of Alice. 2016 also saw the publication of my Christmas book, The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge, which USA Today called “[a] clever, merry, and, yes, convincingly Dickensian reimagining of this Victorian tale.”

My new novel, The Lost Book of the Grail, will be published on February 28, 2017. Set in an English cathedral library, and reaching through centuries of English history, it tells the story of bibliophile and Holy Grail enthusiast Arthur Prescott as he works to uncover a centuries-old secret about the cathedral’s history.

None of this could have happened without the support and love of my wonderful wife, Janice, and my fabulous children, Jimmy and Jordan. ...more

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Combine Editions
Charlie Lovett’s books

Average rating: 3.76 · 34,656 ratings · 5,735 reviews · 28 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Bookman’s Tale 3.76 avg rating — 18,392 ratings — published 2013 — 37 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
	First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen 3.64 avg rating — 6,648 ratings — published 2014 — 19 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
	The Lost Book of the Grail 3.86 avg rating — 6,014 ratings — published 2017 — 17 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
	The Enigma Affair 3.85 avg rating — 988 ratings — published 2022 — 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
	The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Continued 3.49 avg rating — 991 ratings — published 2015 — 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
	Escaping Dreamland 3.89 avg rating — 881 ratings — published 2020 — 11 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
	The Fat Lady Sings 3.63 avg rating — 57 ratings — published 2011 — 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
	The Program 3.23 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 2008 — 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
	The Book of the Seven Spells: Guardians 3.64 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2022 — 6 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
	Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games' Most Storied Race really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1997	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

More books by Charlie Lovett…

111 posts
Charlie Lovett's Blog

Some New Book Reviews

Since I launched my podcast, Inside the Writer’s Studio, in 2017, I have focussed on that medium for talking to you about writing, authors, and books. I’ve recorded 41 episodes now, and if you haven’t listened it, I hope you will. But now that the podcast is well established, publishers send me books to see if I’d like to have the authors on the show. They send me lots of books and pitch more auth

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Charlie’s Recent Updates

Charlie Lovett is now friends with Jane
Sep 30, 2025 11:28AM · like

More of Charlie's books…

Quotes by Charlie Lovett (?)

“A good book is like a good friend. It will stay with you for the rest of your life. When you first get to know it, it will give you excitement and adventure, and years later it will provide you with comfort and familiarity. And best of all, you can share it with your children or your grandchildren or anyone you love enough to let into its secrets.”
― Charlie Lovett, First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen

tags: books

52 likes

“If you mail a rare stamp it becomes worthless. If you drink a rare bottle of wine, you're left with some recycling. But if you read a rare book it's still there, it's still valuable, and it's achieved the full measure of it's being. A book is to read, whether it's worth five pounds or five thousand pounds”
― Charlie Lovett, First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen

37 likes

“What he wanted was to find that world-within-the-world where he could be himself by himself.”
― Charlie Lovett, The Bookman’s Tale

tags: introvert

23 likes

See all Charlie Lovett's quotes »

Polls

Vote For 1 Book For April 2016, Top 2 Win

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

by Katarina Bivald Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love.

6 votes 33.3%

The Book of Speculation

by Erika Swyler A sweeping and captivating debut novel about a young librarian who is sent a mysterious old book, inscribed with his grandmother's name. What is the book's connection to his family?

4 votes 22.2%

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book

by Wendy Welch A book about losing your place, finding your purpose, and immersing yourself in what holds community, and humanity, together—books

3 votes 16.7%

The Little Paris Bookshop

by Nina George Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.

2 votes 11.1%

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen

by Charlie Lovett A thrilling literary mystery co-starring Jane Austen from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale

1 vote 5.6%

The Giant's House

by Elizabeth McCracken An unusual love story about a little librarian on Cape Cod and the tallest boy in the world, "The Giant's House" is the magical first novel from the author of the 1994 ALA Notable collection Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry.

1 vote 5.6%

The Library of Unrequited Love

by Sophie Divry One morning a librarian finds a reader who has been locked in overnight.

1 vote 5.6%

18 total votes

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