Stanley Middleton
Stanley Middleton | |
---|---|
Born | (1919-08-01)1 August 1919 Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, England |
Died | 25 July 2009(2009-07-25) (aged 89) |
Occupation | Novelist |
Alma mater | University of Nottingham |
Genre | Novel |
Notable awards | Booker Prize |
Spouse | Margaret Welch |
Stanley Middleton FRSL (1 August 1919 – 25 July 2009) was a British novelist.
Life
He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1919 and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham, and later at University College Nottingham.
Middleton started writing while at university and in 1958 published A Short Answer. Alongside his work as an author, he taught English at High Pavement Grammar School for many years. In 1974, his novel Holiday won the Booker Prize.[1] In 2008, Her Three Wise Men was published, his 44th novel and the last to be published during his lifetime.
Middleton was an accomplished organist, playing regularly at St Mark's Methodist Church on Ravensworth Road in Bulwell and stepping in to cover others, often at Mansfield Road Baptist Church in Nottingham. He was also a fine watercolourist and contributed his own artwork to the covers of the 1994 novel Catalysts and the festschrift Stanley Middleton At Eighty.
In 2006, a reporter for The Sunday Times sent the first chapters of Holiday to a number of publishers and literary agents as a journalistic stunt. Almost all rejected it.
The actor Peter Bowles was taught by Middleton while a pupil at High Pavement. In 1980 when Bowles was the subject of the popular TV programme This Is Your Life, Middleton appeared as a guest on the programme.
Middleton was married to Margaret Welch from 1951 until his death; the couple had two daughters, Penny and Sarah. Towards the end of his life, he suffered from cancer, and died in a nursing home on 25 July 2009, at age 89.
It has been revealed that Middleton refused an OBE in 1979. This came to light following a freedom of information request by the BBC. He did not feel that he should be honoured simply for doing what he regarded as his job.[2]
Bibliography
Fiction
- A Short Answer (1958)
- Harris's Requiem (1960)
- A Serious Woman (1961)
- The Just Exchange (1962)
- Two's Company (1963)
- Him They Compelled (1964)
- Terms of Reference (1966)
- The Golden Evening (1968)
- Wages of Virtue (1969)
- Apple of the Eye (1970)
- Brazen Prison (1971)
- Cold Gradations (1972)
- A Man Made of Smoke (1973)
- Holiday (1974)
- Distractions (1975)
- Still Waters (1976)
- Ends and Means (1977)
- Two Brothers (1978)
- In a Strange Land (1979)
- The Other Side (1980)
- Blind Understanding (1982)
- Entry into Jerusalem (1983)
- The Daysman (1984)
- Valley of Decision (1985)
- An After-Dinner's Sleep (1986)
- After a Fashion (1987)
- Recovery (1988)
- Vacant Places (1989)
- Changes and Chances (1990)
- Beginning to End (1991)
- A Place to Stand (1992)
- Married Past Redemption (1993)
- Catalysts (1994)
- Toward the Sea (1995)
- Live and Learn (1996)
- Brief Hours (1997)
- Against the Dark (1998)
- Necessary Ends (1999)
- Small Change (2000)
- Love in the Provinces (2002)
- Brief Garlands (2004)
- Sterner Stuff (2005)
- Mother's Boy (2006)
- Her Three Wise Men (2008)
- A Cautious Approach (2010)
Non-fiction
- Stanley Middleton at Eighty (1999). Edited by David Belbin & John Lucas, this festschrift includes short stories, essays by and about Middleton and a long interview with the author.
References
External links
- "Stanley Middleton", obituary, Daily Telegraph, 30 July 2009.
- Philip Davis, "Stanley Middleton", obituary, The Guardian, 29 July 2009.
- http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/document2012-01-24-075439.pdf
- v
- t
- e
- 1969: P. H. Newby (Something to Answer For)
- 1970: Bernice Rubens (The Elected Member)
- 1970 Lost Prize: J. G. Farrell (Troubles)
- 1971: V. S. Naipaul (In a Free State)
- 1972: John Berger (G.)
- 1973: J. G. Farrell (The Siege of Krishnapur)
- 1974: Nadine Gordimer (The Conservationist) and Stanley Middleton (Holiday)
- 1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Heat and Dust)
- 1976: David Storey (Saville)
- 1977: Paul Scott (Staying On)
- 1978: Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea)
- 1979: Penelope Fitzgerald (Offshore)
- 1980: William Golding (Rites of Passage)
- 1981: Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children)
- 1982: Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark)
- 1983: J. M. Coetzee (Life & Times of Michael K)
- 1984: Anita Brookner (Hotel du Lac)
- 1985: Keri Hulme (The Bone People)
- 1986: Kingsley Amis (The Old Devils)
- 1987: Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger)
- 1988: Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda)
- 1989: Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day)
- 1990: A. S. Byatt (Possession)
- 1991: Ben Okri (The Famished Road)
- 1992: Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Barry Unsworth (Sacred Hunger)
- 1993: Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha)
- 1994: James Kelman (How Late It Was, How Late)
- 1995: Pat Barker (The Ghost Road)
- 1996: Graham Swift (Last Orders)
- 1997: Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)
- 1998: Ian McEwan (Amsterdam)
- 1999: J. M. Coetzee (Disgrace)
- 2000: Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)
- 2001: Peter Carey (True History of the Kelly Gang)
- 2002: Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
- 2003: DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little)
- 2004: Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty)
- 2005: John Banville (The Sea)
- 2006: Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss)
- 2007: Anne Enright (The Gathering)
- 2008: Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
- 2009: Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall)
- 2010: Howard Jacobson (The Finkler Question)
- 2011: Julian Barnes (The Sense of an Ending)
- 2012: Hilary Mantel (Bring Up the Bodies)
- 2013: Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries)
- 2014: Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
- 2015: Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings)
- 2016: Paul Beatty (The Sellout)
- 2017: George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo)
- 2018: Anna Burns (Milkman)
- 2019: Margaret Atwood (The Testaments) and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other)
- 2020: Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain)
- 2021: Damon Galgut (The Promise)
- 2022: Shehan Karunatilaka (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida)
- 2023: Paul Lynch (Prophet Song)