Stanley Middleton

Stanley Middleton
Born 1 August 1919
Bulwell, Nottinghamshire
Died 25 July 2009 (aged 89)
Occupation Novelist
Language English
Citizenship British
Education High Pavement School
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 and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham and University College Nottingham.

Middleton began writing at university and in 1958 published A Short Answer. He taught English at High Pavement Grammar School for many years, and was a highly prolific author. In 1974, his novel Holiday won the Booker prize.[1] Her Three Wise Men, his 44th novel, was published in 2008.

Middleton was an accomplished organist, playing regularly at St Mark's Methodist Church, Ravensworth Road in Bulwell and stepping in to cover others, often at Mansfield Road Baptist Church in Nottingham. He was also a fine water colourist 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 Stanley Middleton when Bowles was a pupil at High Pavement. In 1980 when Bowles was the subject of the popular TV programme This Is Your Life, Stanley Middleton was a guest on the programme.

Middleton was married to Margaret Welch from 1951 until his death; their two daughters, Penny and Sarah, both born in the 1950s, survive him. He had cancer, and died in a nursing home.

It has been revealed that Middleton refused an OBE in 1979. This came to light after a Freedom of information request by the BBC. He did not feel that he should be honoured merely for doing what he saw 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

  1. ↑ http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/Tributes-paid-Nottingham-author/article-1203557-detail/article.html
  2. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/26/roald-dahl-cs-lewis-writers-refused-honours

External links