Mark's Story
Orphaned in 1960, Mark was adopted by Philip Stibbe, a pupil and friend of CS Lewis. Inspired by his father’s passion for stories, Mark fell in love with literature and was awarded a scholarship to study English at Cambridge University. He wrote a PhD in storytelling, which was published by Cambridge University Press.
Mark then went on to write many nonfiction books on spirituality during his 25 years as a Vicar. In 2012, he stopped pastoring to pursue his calling as a mass-market fiction writer. In 2020, he completed his novel A Book in Time and submitted it to an international literary competition. He won the Page Turner Writing award for Fiction.
Mark divides his time equally between writing fiction and running BookLab, a company dedicated to assessing manuscripts, ghost writing, structural editing, and coaching. He lives in Kent with his wife Cherith, their Black Labrador Bella and Yellow Labrador Phoebe. Bella Books was established in 2023 as the primary vehicle for publishing Mark’s novels.
Mark believes in writing stories that are both literary and commercial:
“There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.”
W.H. Auden
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Mark Stibbe is a fiction writer who specializes in magical realism and historical romance for adults, and science fiction for the 8-12s. He is a member of The Society of Authors.