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Ian McEwan

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Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan CBE, (born June 21, 1948), is a British novelist (sometimes nicknamed "Ian Macabre" because of the nature of his early work).[1]


Contents

Biography

McEwan was born in Aldershot in England and spent much of his childhood in the East Asia, Germany and North Africa where his father, an officer in the army, was posted. He was educated at the University of Sussex and the University of East Anglia, where he was the first graduate of Malcolm Bradbury's pioneering creative writing course.

He has been married twice. His second wife, Annalena McAfee, is the editor of The Guardian's Review section. In 1999, his first wife, Penny Allen, absconded with McEwan's 13-year-old son after a court in Brittany, France, ruled that the boy should be returned to his father, who has sole custody over him and his 15-year-old brother.[2]

In March and April of 2004, just months after the British government had invited him to dinner with First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, McEwan was denied entry into the United States by the United States Department of Homeland Security for not having the proper visa.[3] Only after several days and publicity in the British press was McEwan admitted because, as he said a customs official had told him, "We still don't want to let you in, but this is attracting a lot of unfavourable publicity."[4] The US government later sent a letter of apology.[5]

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He was awarded a CBE in 2000.[6]

Ian McEwan is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Works

His first published work was the collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) were his early novels. His 1997 novel, Enduring Love, about a person with de Clerambault's syndrome, is regarded by many as a masterpiece, though Atonement has received equally high acclaim (Time Magazine named it the best fiction novel of 2002). In 1998, he was awarded the Booker Prize for his novel, Amsterdam.

His latest novel, Saturday, follows an especially eventful day in the life of a neurosurgeon. Mr Henry Perowne, the main character, lives in a house on a square in central London where McEwan himself lives after relocating from Oxford. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 2005.

In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy, when it was alleged that McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence; in the London newspaper, The Guardian Unlimited, he responded to such charges, clearly stating that he had acknowledged Andrews' work in the author's note at the end of Atonement.[7][8][9]

Bibliography

Novels

Short fiction collections

Children's fiction

Plays

  • The Imitation Game (1981)

Screenplays

Oratorio

  • or Shall We Die? (1983)

References

Further reading

References

  1. ^ "Atonement - Evolution of Ian Macabre.", Questia. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  2. ^ "Novelist's ex-wife 'gagged'", BBC News, 7 September 1999. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  3. ^ "Novelist McEwan barred from US", Guardian Unlimited, 1 April 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  4. ^ "Acclaimed novelist denied entry to U.S., San Francisco Chronicle, 3 April 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  5. ^ "US apologises for barring author", BBC News, 22 April 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  6. ^ Ian McEwan, Contemporary Writers. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  7. ^ An inspiration, yes. Did I copy from another author? No. Guardian Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  8. ^ McEwan hits back at call for atonement. Times Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  9. ^ McEwan accused of copying writers memoirs. PR inside. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.

Categories


1948 births | Booker Prize winners | English novelists | British humanists | Atheists | Alumni of the University of East Anglia | Living people

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