Mark Hudson

Mark Hudson (born 29 March 1957) is a British writer, journalist and art critic. Since 2021 he has been chief art critic of The Independent. He has won multiple awards. Biography Hudson was born on 29 March 1957 in Harrogate, England. He completed his B.A. with honors from Winchester School of Art. Hudson's books are diverse in subject matter, but united by their approach which incorporates elements of history, travel writing, cultural criticism and personal participation. As a journalist Hudson has written extensively about African music and culture, and two of his books are set in Africa. Our Grandmothers' Drums, based on a year spent living in a village in the Gambia, described the author's personal and emotional involvement in village life with a frankness unusual in either travel writing or anthropology. ‘I have rarely read a book of greater passion or honesty,’ wrote the Sunday Times. While the book's candidness attracted some criticism, particularly in the U.S., it won two literary awards, Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1990) and Somerset Maugham Award (1990). The Music in my Head, a scabrous satire on the world music phenomenon, set in a fictional West African city, offended many in the world music milieu, but delighted others. Coming Back Brockens, based on a year spent in a former mining village in the north of England – where the author's grandfather and great-grandfather were both miners – was acclaimed in The Independent as "a pained description of an England that has all but exhausted itself". Hudson's most recent book, Titian, the Last Days, is a personal study of the great Venetian painter Titian, focusing on his mysterious last paintings.