The Countenance Divine - SLD

Hughes was born and raised in the border town of Keady in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland. After a degree in English at Oxford University, he trained at the Lecoq Theatre School in Paris, and he has worked for many years as an actor, under the professional name Michael Colgan. He has also worked in film production and script development.

He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, followed by a PhD at London Metropolitan University, where he taught both Creative Writing and English Literature. He has also taught Creative Writing as a Visiting Lecturer at Roehampton University and the University of Hertfordshire. Before joining Queen Mary, he was Lecturer in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.

His first novel The Countenance Divine was published by John Murray in 2016, and was followed by Country in 2018, also from John Murray, which won the London Hellenic Prize, and was shortlisted for the EU Prize for Literature. It was chosen as a Book of the Year in the Guardian, TLS and New Statesman.