Dame Rosemary Jane Tremain (née Thomson; born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. She has been the recipient of many prizes for her writing, including the Giles Cooper Award (1984), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1992), the Whitbread Award (1999) and the Orange Prize (2008).
Tremain was born on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and Keith Nicholas Home Thomson. Her paternal great-grandfather is William Thomson, who was Archbishop of York from 1862 to 1890.
She was educated at Francis Holland School, Crofton Grange School, the Sorbonne (1961–1962) and the University of East Anglia (BA, English Literature). She later went on to teach creative writing at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1995, and was appointed Chancellor in 2013.
She married Jon Tremain in 1971 and they had one daughter. The marriage lasted about five years. Her second marriage, to theatre director Jonathan Dudley, in 1982, lasted about nine years; and she has been in a relationship with Richard Holmes since 1992. She lives in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich in Norfolk.
Tremain's influences include William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, and Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude and the magical realism style.
She is a historical novelist who approaches her subjects "from unexpected angles, concentrating her attention on unglamorous outsiders".
In 2009, she donated the short story The Jester of Astapovo to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Earth" collection.
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983. Already Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Tremain was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to writing.
1984: Giles Cooper Award, Temporary Shelter (play)
1989: Sunday Express Book of the Year, Restoration
1989: Booker Prize, shortlist, Restoration
1992: James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Sacred Country
1994: Prix Femina Étranger, Sacred Country
1999: Whitbread Award, Music and Silence
2008: Orange Prize, The Road Home
2012: Wellcome Book Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time
2013: Walter Scott Prize, shortlist, Merivel: A Man of His Time
2016: National Jewish Book Award for The Gustav Sonata