Sillitoe, Alan

(1928- )

   Born in Nottingham, the son of a laborer, he left school at 14 to work in the Raleigh Bicycle Factory, then as an air traffic control assistant. He served as a Royal Air Force wireless operator in Malaya; after demobilization he was hospitalized for 18 months with tuberculosis. He was visiting professor of English at De Montfort University, Leicester (19941997), is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and holds an honorary fellowship from Manchester Polytechnic (1977). He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by Nottingham Polytechnic (1990), Nottingham University (1994) and De Montfort University (1998). He shot to fame with his novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958), followed by The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1959), both made into films. He went on to write many more novels, short stories and plays. He married the poet Ruth Fainlight (see entry) in 1959. They divide their time between London and Somerset. Some of his poetry publications: Without Bread or Beer, 1957. The Rats and Other Poems, 1960. A Falling Out of Love and Other Poems, 1964. Storm and Other Poems, 1974. Three Poems, 1988. Collected Poems, 1993.

   Sources: British Council Arts (http://www.contemporarywriters.com). Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Holocaust Poetry. Hilda Schiff, ed. HarperCollins, 1995. Spaceways: An Antholog y of Space Poems. John Foster, ed. Oxford University Press, 1986. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse. Philip Larkin, ed. Oxford University Press, 1973. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005.