Tom Stacey is best known as a prize-winning author and man of letters. But his temperament and course of life have carried him frequently to the scene of action. His has been a life of unusual range: as traveller, especially in remote and challenging regions; as king maker, remarkably, in the Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori); as roving correspondent, outstandingly for the Sunday Times, winning “Foreign Correspondent of the Year” Award, covering the world scene and taking him to over 120 countries; as penal reformer, political theorist, Christian activist, and entrepreneurial publisher. Tom Stacey’s adventurous life has given him extraordinary tales to tell. A born writer, he offers us reflective wisdom put down memorably and pleasurably in a unique voice. His work has been compared with that of Graham Greene, E.M Forester, John Banville, and the 17th century divine Jeremy Taylor, and acclaimed by many – Nina Bawden, Rowan Williams, Christopher Hill, and John Gray. He and his wife, the widely-exhibited sculptor Caroline Stacey, have five children, numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Forthcoming in 2017 is Tom Stacey’s major new novel A Dark and Stormy Night, on the nature of love. Already it has been heralded by contemporary literature luminaries.
A.N. Wilson has written “this is a beautiful book. The Dante scholar lost in a dark wood, the Bishop going into the darkness where God is. The man who has experienced Love on so many levels, reliving his past before confronting the great Empyrean. This impressive narration isn’t just a stream of consciousness. It is a well-crafted narration, it has a plot. Marigold is very vivid to me, but the other two women, Clare and Evle, are also very distinct. Tom Stacey also conveys – mysteriously -the characters of the other members of the house party: whom we never meet. Humour, humanity, passion are all here. It’s a superb achievement.”
Andrew Roberts has written ” Tom Stacey again confronts life’s great issues in his superb new novel A Dark and Stormy Night. God and Mammon, music and faith, pain and bereavement, the passing of time and nature of friendship and grief, it opens with the hero getting physically lost in a forest in Provence at the time of the Great Crash. But is he spiritually lost too? All this plus Dante, pygmies and a brilliant twist in the tale. A Dark and Stormy Night is vintage Stacey.”
VIDEO: Tom Stacey in conversation about the central themes of his recently-ePublished novel The Pandemonium: spiritual and carnal love, the celibacy of the priesthood and the destiny of man.