Synopses & Reviews
Written with the close cooperation of Alan Sillitoe himself, The Life of a Long Distance Writer is not only the definitive work on the legendary writer in his 80th birthday year, it also promises to be perhaps the most controversial literary biography of the last decade. Alan Sillitoe has allowed Richard Bradford unrestriced access to his papers and personal archive, enabling Bradford to build the first comprehensive portrait of this brilliant and often contradictory figure. Within it, Bradford revealsamong other thingsthat Sillitoe, though proud of his background and Nottingham hometown, rejects the "working-class writer" tag that has been thrust on him, loathes political correctness in all its forms, and has retained for a long time a somewhat unfashionable Zionism, strongly sympathetic to those who want to protect the Jewish homeland. As well as this, Bradford delves into Silltoe's literary and artistic liasions across mediums, perhaps most notably a long and close friendship with Poet Laureate Ted Hughes.
Synopsis
Written with the close co-operation of Alan Sillitoe himself, this book is the definitive work on the legendary writer, and perhaps the most controversial literary biography of the last decade. Through unrestriced access to Sillitoe's papers and personal archives Bradford has crafted the first comprehensive portrait of this brilliant and often contradictory figure. Bradford delves into Silltoe's literary and artistic liasions across mediums, perhaps most notably a long and close friendship with Poet Laureate. Ted Hughes.
About the Author
Richard Bradford is a professor of English at the University of Ulster. He previously has taught in the universities of Oxford, Wales, and in Trinity College, Dublin. He has written a dozen books on a variety of subjects, including two critical monographs of Kingsley Amis.