Sillitoe, Alan

BIOGHIST REQUIRED English north-country novelist, b. 1928.

English north-country novelist, b. 1928.

Sillitoe was born in Nottingham, England, the son of a tannery laborer. He left school at 14 to work in a bicycle plant, and later joined the Royal Air Force. He served as a radio operator from 1946-1949 in Malaya, and, upon leaving the service, was found to have tuberculosis confining him to bed for many months. A blessing in disguise, Sillitoe received a small disability pension and so was able to pursue his dream of learning to write. His first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was proclaimed by some critics as the finest novel of 1958. The Loneliness of the Long–distance Runner (contained in a short story collection of the same name) firmly established his literary reputation the following year. Both have been translated into numerous languages, made into films, and performed on stage and on television. Sillitoe has written and published a number of other novels, in addition to magazine and newspaper articles, poetry and many short stories.

Author.

Alan Sillitoe was born in 1928 in Nottingham, the son of a tannery labourer. At the age of fourteen Sillitoe left school and worked in a number of jobs in Nottingham factories. He then served in the Royal Air Force, as a wireless operator. He was sent to Malaya, and on his return was discovered to have tuberculosis. Sillitoe spent sixteen months in a RAF hospital, and during this period, he began to write and read intensively. He was pensioned off at the age of 21 and then spent seven years living in France and Spain to assist his recovery. Sillitoe married Ruth Fainlight, an American poet, in 1959.

Alan Sillitoe has written more than 50 books including novels, plays, poetry, travel pieces, children's books and over 400 essays. Encouraged by Robert Graves, Alan Sillitoe decided to write his first novel, The Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (London: W.H. Allen, 1958). A year later, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (London: W.H. Allen, 1959), a collection of stories with which he won the Hawthornden Prize, was published; followed closely by his first book of verse, The Rats and Other Poems (London: W.H. Allen, 1960). Among Sillitoe's other acclaimed works are The Ragman's Daughter (London: W.H. Allen, 1963), A Start in Life (London: W.H. Allen, 1970), and Birthday (London: Harper Collins, 2002).

Sillitoe's nephew, Patrick Cawkwell, was living in Nottinghamshire during the period of the correspondence in this collection. The correspondence is in part concerned with Cawkwell's literary aspirations and advice from his uncle about publication. Cawkwell wrote at least two unpublished novels: a fantasy called 'Icecreamland', and 'Fanningtails'.