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Alphabet of British Writers (Part 3) At first glance it may
seem that the British
nation has no artistic
talents as they have
never produced many
world-famous painters,
sculptors or composers.
It is quite remarkable
then that they have had
so many brilliant and
renowned writers. And
indeed, literature is
probably the art that the
British excel in. You can
find at least a few names
of well-known British
poets and novelists
for each letter of the
alphabet, and many of
the names are famous
all over the world. This
alphabet of British writers
I want to present to you is
my subjective list. I chose
the literary people I find
especially interesting
or intriguing or whose
achievements are
particularly noteworthy.
My aim is to show you
the richness of British
literature and encourage
you to read some works
written by Brits.
Golding, William Gerald
(1911-1993)
William Golding was born on September
19, 1911 in Cornwall, England.
He started writing when he
was only seven years old, but later,
following his parents wishes, he
went to study natural sciences and
English at Oxford University.
After graduating he wrote plays
in London and then worked as an
English teacher in Salisbury. During
World War II he served in the
Royal Navy. He took part in the
sinking of the German battleship
Bismarck and in the Normandy invasion.
After the war he returned to
writing and teaching.
Golding’s first novel, Lord of the
Flies, was rejected by twenty-one
publishers before it finally appeared
in print in 1954. The novel
was a great success both in Britain
and America. It is a story of a group
of small boys on a desert island
who, deprived of the adult guidance,
adopt barbaric and violent
behavior. In The Inheritors (1955)
Golding reached into prehistory depicting
humankind’s ancestors who
triumphed over a gentler race not
only by natural superiority but also
by deceit and violence. In his other
novels he explored the problems of
existence and made use of allusions
to classical literature, mythology
and Christian symbolism. Golding’s
later novels were not as successful
as the earlier ones, but nevertheless,
in 1983 he was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1988 he received a knighthood
from Queen Elizabeth II.
His other major works: Pincher
Martin (1956), Free Fall (1959),
The Spire (1964), The Hot Gates
(1965), Darkness Visible (1979),
the trilogy The Ends of the Earth:
Rites of Passage (1980), Close
Quarters (1987), The Fire Down
Below (1989).
Huxley, Aldous Leonard
(1894-1963)
Born on July 26, 1894 in Godalming,
Surrey, Aldous Huxley was
a member of a famous scientific
and literary family. He was the
grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley,
a distinguished biologist who
published numerous books on evolution,
anatomy and paleontology,
and the son of Leonard Huxley,
a biographer, poet and editor. Aldous’s
brother, Julian, was a wellknown
biologist and his aunt,
Mary Augusta Ward, was a novelist.
What is more, the famous British
humanist, Mathew Arnold, was
his mother’s uncle.
Aldous also wanted to become
a scientist, but at the age of 16 he
suffered an attack of an eye disease
which nearly blinded him. He
nevertheless completed his studies
at Oxford University in 1916. As
he was unable to pursue a scientific
career or fight in World War
I, he turned to literature. His first
collection of poems appeared in
1916 and by 1920 he had published
two more volumes. His first novel,
Chrome Yellow, which appeared in
print in 1921, was a satire on contemporary
society. It was a great
success and immediately established
his position as a literary figure.
He became friends with other
famous British novelists, especially
members of the Bloomsbury
Group. In the next eight years he
wrote twelve books, including
the famous Point Counter Point
(1928), in which he discussed intellectual
and social issues and expressed
his anxiety about scientific
and technological progress.
In 1919 he married a Belgian woman,
Maria Nys, and one year later
his only son was born. Throughout
the 1920s Huxley and his family
traveled a lot, first to Italy and
later to India and the United States.
Those travels resulted in his masterpiece,
Brave New World, which
he published in 1932. The novel
presented a dystopian vision of
a technologically advanced and hedonistic
society of the future which
rejects all traditional values.
In 1937 Huxley moved to California,
USA, believing that the climate
would do his eyesight good.
He soon abandoned fiction and
started writing essays and screenplays.
In the 1950s he became interested
in psychedelic drugs such as mescaline
and LSD, which he took ‘in
a search for enlightenment.’
His first wife died of breast cancer
in 1955 and one year later he
married Laura Archera, who later
wrote his biography. In 1960 Huxley
himself was diagnosed with
cancer and he died on November
22, 1963.
His other novels: Antic Hay (1923),
Those Barren Leaves (1925), Eyeless
in Gaza (1936), After Many
a Summer (1939), Time Must Have
a Stop (1944), Ape and Essence
(1948), The Genius and the Goddess
(1955), Island (1962).
Ishiguro, Kazuo (1954-)
Kazuo Ishiguro was born on November
8, 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan.
In 1960 his father began
a two-year research project at the
National Institute of Oceanography
and the Ishiguro family moved
to Guilford, England. Kazuo’s parents
thought they would go back to
their native Japan one day and it
was not until Kazuo was 15 years
old that the decision to stay in Britain
was made. By that time he had
completed primary school and was
attending a grammar school for
boys in Surrey. Later he studied
English and philosophy at the University
of Kent, Canterbury, where
he obtained a Bachelor’s degree.
Then he did a postgraduate course
in Creative Writing at the University
of East Anglia.
In 1981 three of his short stories
appeared in print and one year later
his first novel, A Pale View of Hills,
was published. The story is narrated
by a Japanese widow living
in England who recalls her life in
post-war Nagasaki. For this novel
Ishiguro was awarded the Winifred
Holtby Memorial Prize and soon
Granta magazine nominated him
as one of the 20 ‘Best Young British
writers.’ His second novel, An
Artist of the Floating World (1986),
won the Whitbread Book of the
Year and was shortlisted for the
Booker Prize, a reward which he
won three years later when his third
novel, The Remains of the Day,
was published. This is the story of
an English butler whose memories
of his work and life before World
War II are intermingled with memories
of the rise of Fascism and of
the war itself. His next two novels,
The Unconsoled (1996) and When
We Were Orphans (2000), were
also a great success. In 2005 he
published his latest novel, Never
Let Me Go. It is narrated by Kathy
H., who talks about her childhood
at a boarding school which, it turns
out, was a school for cloned children
who had been brought into the
world only to provide organs for
‘normal’ people.
Kazuo Ishiguro lives in London
with his wife and daughter. In
1995 he was awarded the Order
of the British Empire for service
to literature and in 1998 the French
government named him a Chevalier
de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Monika Oracz
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