Have you noticed that the majority of agents and successful novelists all went to Cambridge? Is this a class thing? A feedback loop? Or just that Cambridge produces good novelists?

[Mismanaged2]

Whenever I read the jacket of a book lately, the author puts their university (Cambridge) in their bio. Whenever I read the bios of successful agents, the same university appears.

Are people who were motivated to work hard on their A Levels at age 18 (and from very middle class families who helped them do well at school) really better at writing and agenting than anyone else? Or is it an accidental bias?

No other profession I’ve come across in my own personal life has this leaning. It is starting to depress and irritate me. Like, I’m not a member of your club so I don’t belong.

Do you think it might just be the sort of books you read?

I've picked the last 5 books I've read and it's

• British - Newcastle University

• American - Nebraska Wesleyan University

• French - Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague

• Chinese - North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power

• Chinese - Harvard

• British - University of East Anglia

Perhaps I’m in my own personal feedback loop 😂

I honestly hope so. I don’t I want the majority of the words we read being produced by the same sort of people - hardworking as a teenager, parents probably encouraging and middle class. We’re not all like that!

I am going to try and purposefully branch out a bit!

(But I tend to read a lot of mainstream literary fiction written by women)

I would say don't be discouraged. Write what you want to write and would like to read. There are lots of great authors who struggled for years or even only had posthumous success. If you get an agent then a publisher then sell enough to make a career then all the better (and I'm not minimising how hard it can be for a writer to struggle for money when others seem to achieve success easily).

I've not noticed more from Cambridge than Oxford though I do recognise a lot/many/most? authors, agents, editors and other workers in publishing (and related media that help books succeed - book reviews, BBC and such like) have a background from both of these universities.

I'm unsure about cause and effect. I could be any of the following (or more likely a combination):
Oxbridge selects a sample with talent and a propensity for hard work (and other advantages);
The opportunities arising from proximity and 'networking' with others already in the industry who went to the same College/University; and/or
A greater likelihood for the writer to have the resources to be able to devote time to writing rather than having to work in low-paid jobs and take advantage of (now it seems mostly) unpaid internships and then relatively lowly paid starter roles in the industry. That said, I know many Oxbridge students don't start with financial advantage and need to work in minimum wage jobs though in my experience, the 'average' Oxbridge student tends to be better-off than the average student studying in, say, non-Russell Group UK universities.

It is harder but not impossible for a writer to succeed from outside Oxbridge. I suppose, to be fair, most aspiring writers from Oxbridge don't succeed as well though I don't deny they start with advantages.

Also how do you define successful. If I was asked to pick four successful and prolific writers I'd have

Marion Keyes

Janet Evanovich

Terry Prattchet

Stephen King

All making a good living and putting books out regularly while alive

Iwouldprefernotto - I've just guessed quickly so perhaps none but how many?

• British - Newcastle University
  Alastair

• American - Nebraska Wesleyan University
  Robert?

• French - Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague
  Aliette?

• Chinese - North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power
  Liu

• Chinese - Harvard
  Ken

• British - University of East Anglia
  Ishiguro, Naomi or could be many?

I haven't noticed this and I don't think it's true. Hope not anyway as I didn't go to Oxbridge.

@Zilla1

You were correct on all but the final who was Anne Charnock

Thank you for replying, Iwouldprefer.

Curses, UEA, and your relative dominance of the UK university creative writing scene.

Zilla1 totally agree with you on those points! The last three books I read were all by (female) Cambridge grads. The last agents I looked up had it on their bio too. It started to bug me! Gonna branch out 😂

iwouldprefernotto also agree that those authors are definitely v well-known and successful. Perhaps the subset that keeps appearing to me are the female literary fiction circuit?! Time to turn off Twitter! (Ultimate feedback loop.)

@Mismanaged

Like you I was in a comfortable loop. I got out of it by reading a lot of short form fiction looking for anthologies with a specific theme e.g. Women writers, African authors and translated fiction. It really opened me up to a lot of new people