P. H. Newby
P. H. Newby CBE | |
---|---|
Born | Percy Howard Newby (1918-06-25)25 June 1918 Crowborough, Sussex, England |
Died | 6 September 1997(1997-09-06) (aged 79) Garsington, England |
Occupation | Author, managing director of BBC Radio |
Education | Hanley Castle Grammar School St Paul's College of Education |
Percy Howard Newby CBE (25 June 1918 – 6 September 1997) was an English novelist and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the Booker Prize, his novel Something to Answer For having received the inaugural award in 1969.[1]
Early life
Newby was born in Crowborough, Sussex, England, on 25 June 1918 and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School in Worcestershire, and St Paul's College of Education in Cheltenham. In October 1939 he was sent to France to serve in World War II as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. His unit was one of the last to be evacuated. Afterwards he was sent to the Middle East and served in the Egyptian desert.
Career
Newby was released from military service in December 1942, and then taught English Literature at King Fouad University in Cairo until 1946. One of his students was the Egyptian editor Mursi Saad El-Din.
From 1949 to 1978, Newby was employed by the BBC, beginning as a radio producer and going on to become successively Controller of the Third Programme and Radio Three, Director of Programmes (Radio), and finally managing director, BBC Radio. While at Radio 3, Newby is credited with increasing the amount of Classical music on the station without the need for controversial changes to schedules.
His first novel, A Journey into the Interior, was published in 1946. He then returned to England to write. In the same year he was given an Atlantic Award in literature, and two years thence he received the Somerset Maugham Prize. In 1947, John Lehmann published Newby's boys' adventure story "The Spirit of Jem" with 41 line drawings and a colour dust wrap by Keith Vaughan.
In 1972, Newby was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his work as managing director of BBC Radio.
In his obituary author, friend and colleague Anthony Thwaite states: "P. H. Newby was one of the best English novelists of the second half of the century."[2]
Works
Novels
- A Journey to the Interior (1945)
- The Spirit of Jem (1947)
- Agents and Witnesses (1947)
- Mariner Dances (1948)
- The Loot Runners (1949)
- The Snow Pasture (1949)
- The Young May Moon (1950)
- A Season in England (1951)
- A Step to Silence (1952)
- The Retreat (1953)
- Picnic at Sakkara (1955)
- Revolution and Roses (1957)
- Ten Miles From Anywhere (1958)
- A Guest and His Going (1960)
- The Barbary Light (1962)
- One of the Founders (1965)
- Something to Answer For (1968)
- A Lot to Ask (1973)
- Kith (1977)
- Feelings Have Changed (1981)
- Leaning in the Wind (1986)
- Coming in with the Tide (1991)
- Something About Women (1995)
Nonfiction
- Maria Edgeworth (1950)
- The Novel, 1945-1950 (1951)
- The Uses of Broadcasting (1978)
- The Egypt Story (1979)
- Warrior Pharaohs (1980)
- Saladin in His Time (1983)
References
- ^ "Fiction at its Finest". The Man Booker Prize. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
- ^ Thwaite, Anthony (9 September 1997). "Obituary: P.H. Newby". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
External links
- Information site for P.H. Newby
- "Memories of the First Booker Prize". P.H. Newby Literary Estate.
- 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)