
JONATHAN FALLA is an English writer now based in Scotland, the author of four published novels, ethnography, essays, short stories and drama. The pages of this site provide information on all JF’s work, with reviews, a brief biography and contact details. Please have a look through the pages – and thank you for your interest.
Jonathan Falla was born in 1954 in Jamaica, where his father lectured in English Literature at the University of the West Indies. The family returned to England a year later on a boat laden with bananas.
The Karamoja experience prompted Jonathan in 1982 to begin nursing, firstly at Oxford, then at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and finally at Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children. In 1985-6 he was in Burma, training village paramedics in the Karen rebel free state of Kawthoolei. This strange encounter led to the ethnographic study True Love & Bartholomew: Rebels of the Burmese Border (Cambridge University Press).
In 1991 he was Save The Children’s medical coordinator in Darfur, West Sudan, at a time when the opening stages of the current Darfur crisis were being played out. This difficult time is at the heart of the novel Poor Mercy, published many years later.
During the 1990s Jonathan was writing drama. A BBC feature film, The Hummingbird Tree, was shot in Trinidad with a local crew, and went on to win several awards. This helped Jonathan to gain the first Fulbright/T.E.B.Clarke Fellowship to study at the film school of the University of Southern California. The script that he wrote there concerned the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It was never filmed, but became his first published novel, Blue Poppies. Other drama productions included Down the Tubes, a play for community theatre in Edinburgh, and River of Dreams, a musical for children with composer Gordon Murch. He was also translator and scriptwriter for Diriamba!, a co-production between the Edinburgh Theatre Workshop and Teatro Nixtayolero of Nicaragua which won a ‘Fringe First’ on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Three other novels followed: Poor Mercy, Glenfarron, and The Physician of Sanlucar.
He has written many short stories, which have been both published and broadcast, and in 2007 was shortlisted for the National Short Story Prize. He has also written numerous essays and book reviews for publications including the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist, London Magazine, Minnesota Review, The Scotsman and the Scottish Review of Books. He teaches arts for the Open University and St Andrews University, and in 2009 he was appointed Director of the St Andrews Creative Writing Summer School which he still continues to run.
Jonathan’s interest in tropical healthcare has taken him to Nicaragua and El Salvador, Brazil and Nepal, and he has also travelled in Chile, overland to India, in West Africa and through much of Europe. He continued in nursing until 2006, but then became a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, attached to Dundee University as part of an effort to raise standards in academic writing. In 2007 he was awarded a £30,000 “Creative Scotland” prize for work on a new novel. This project stems in part from his long involvement with a professional Early Music quartet for which he plays lute and woodwind and sings baritone. The group has made three CD recordings of 16th century music from Spain, France, England and Scotland, the most recent of which was an ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Gramophone.
Jonathan married his wife Rona (a doctor) in Edinburgh in 1992. They live with their son, Kit, in rural Fife where Jonathan is a serving member of the Scottish Children’s Panel.
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Hi Jonathan, I really enjoyed the concert, last night. It was pure magic! And it was brilliant to meet you. I sent a few pics of the concert to Gordon. I hadn’t realized that I’ve read one of your books – ‘ Blue Poppies’ – which I found very moving. I’ll download the rest when I get home to Penrith. Best wishes for your future projects. Cheers, Julie.
hi jo, still going strong I see–! well done on yet another book
Hi Jo, David Weber. I was sitting here working on a script set in Africa and thought about you, and realized that of course it would be easy enough to find you in cyberspace. I still remember fondly the last time we saw each other, when you took me to Glenducky (sp?) Sounds like things are going well and as usual, you are carving your own successful path. Speaking of which, were you aware that your classmate at SC, Cinco Paul, wrote the Despicable Me movies, among others? If you’ve seen them I’m sure you’ll recognize the humor. Best, Dave
Hi Dave – how nice to hear from you. I’ll email at greater length. Despicable Me is a Falla family favorite, and my son loves the reflected glory of saying “My dad knows the Cinco who wrote that.” It really is funny, and very Cinco.
What a truly amazing book–your Blue Poppies! I was with you in Tibet. You took me there. Thank you.
Colleen
Well, thank you, Colleen. Actually, I’ve never been to Tibet proper, although my brother (an anthropologist) has worked there. The nearest I’ve got is Ladakh (or “Little Tibet”) next door in the Himalaya, which has a very similar culture and brand of Buddhism. My wife and I walked through a few valleys up there with a string of pack ponies.
But it’s not as remote as it once was. Nowadays, trippers come up from Delhi by air for the day! So as to be able to say they walked about in the high Himalaya, I suppose. What would Jamie have thought of that, I wonder?
All the best, JF
Hi Jo
Its is Wieger. you know , the guide from the Netherlands. Nice website. Looks really good. How is your work going on your book on the Molukken? If it will be available somehow i would be interested to read some day. you can contact me at dwieger@hotmail.com Well hope to hear from you nd your work Say hi to Rona and Kid for me
Greetings Wieger
Hi ~ What an interesting life you are leading. I happened upon your sight while I was doing some geneology research for my Family.
Are you related to the Falla Family that adopted Ruby Dumont in the early 1900’s in Jamaica? I believe that their names were James ALexander and Rose Falla..they had one son named Lloyd Alexander Falla
Thanks for any help that you may have.
Tandy
I am the daughter of Lloyd Alexander Falla. My grandparents were Rose and James Alexander Falla. I would be interested to know if we are related. Thanks for any information you may have. Vivienne Dec.10 2012
What is your connection with Tandy (below)? My family had no connection with Jamaica at that time.
JF