'Exceptional' Tobias Hill dies aged 53

The industry has paid tribute to the writer Tobias Hill, who has died aged 53.

The London-based author died on 26th August, his agent Victoria Hobbs has confirmed. 

Hobbs, director at A M Heath, said: “I had the very great privilege of representing Tobias for 28 years. The work he leaves behind is exceptional in range and skill, from the poems to the short stories and the novels, always evolving but consistent in the extraordinary descriptive powers on display.” 

She added: “The precision of the poetry fed the prose in a deeply satisfying way. He was a lovely man to work with, absolutely and appropriately aware of his considerable gifts but also modest and unfailingly gentle and courteous in all his dealings. I will miss him and mind very much that we won’t see new work from him in the future.” 

In 2003 the Times Literary Supplement named Hill as one the best young writers in Britain and the following year he was selected as one of the country’s Next Generation poets and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. His collection of stories, Skin (Faber), won the Pen/Macmillan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize.

He also won the Eric Gregory Award in 1995 and the Ian St James Award in 1997. What Was Promised, his fifth novel, was published by Bloomsbury in March 2014. He suffered a stroke in the same year.

Paul Baggaley, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, said: “Tobias Hill was such a talented writer across many forms, and Bloomsbury was very proud to become his publisher of fiction with What Was Promised in 2014. We were also able to acquire his rich backlist and we are committed to ensuring that Tobias’ reputation as a unique voice in contemporary writing continues to be recognised."

He added: "It is a great sadness that such a remarkable writing career has been cut short so cruelly.”

Angus Cargill, publishing director at Faber, said: “All of us at Faber were so saddened to hear of Tobias’ death. I was lucky enough to work on his novels as a junior editor in the early 2000s, and he was such an interesting, talented and positive young voice on the list.  

“Perhaps a highlight for us was The Love of Stones, a wonderful novel which followed the story of a legendary jewel across continents and centuries, and genres, and was typical of his fiction as a whole – atmospheric, dexterous and always engaged with the world and its secrets.”