Colin Spencer (born 1933) is an English

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and artist who has produced a prolific body of work in a wide variety of media since his first published short stories and drawings appeared in ''

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' and ''

Encounter Encounter or Encounters may refer to: Film *''Encounter'', a 1997 Indian film by Nimmala Shankar * ''Encounter'' (2013 film), a Bengali film * ''Encounter'' (2018 film), an American sci-fi film * ''Encounter'' (2021 film), a British sci-fi film * ...

'' when he was 22. His work includes novels, short stories, non-fiction (including histories of food and of homosexuality),

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

cookery books, stage and television plays, paintings and drawings, book and magazine illustrations. He has written and presented a television documentary on vandalism, appeared in numerous radio and television programmes and lectured on food history, literature and social issues. For fourteen years he wrote a regular food column for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Early and personal life

Colin Spencer was born in 1933 in

Thornton Heath Thornton Heath is a district of Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around north of the town of Croydon, and south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the Co ...

, London, and was largely brought up in the south of England. From an early age he knew that he wanted to paint and write. He attended Brighton Grammar School and went on to study at Brighton Art College, but he feels now that he is wholly self-educated. His colourful family provided his youthful imagination with rich material for his later novels, as did his passionate emotional involvements with both men and women. He spent his period of National Service as a pacifist in the Royal Army Medical Corps in war-ravaged Hamburg. He has subsequently lived in London, Vienna, Athens and on the Greek island of Lesbos. His first novel was published when he was 28. His portrait of

E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stor ...

was painted when he was 29. He has twice been married and has one son and two grandsons. He has never stopped painting and writing, and now lives in East Sussex where he is writing the second volume of his autobiography, staring with delight at the Seven Sisters, gardening, and producing the paintings he feels he has striven to create throughout his life �
recently described in ''The Financial Times How to Spend It'' magazine
as "muscular, powerfully envisaged oils", the work of "a remarkable Indian summer". The first volume of his planned 3-part autobiography has recently been published (Quartet Books, April 2013). ''Backing into Light: My Father's Son'' tells the story of the first 3 decades of his eventful life through his wartime boyhood dominated by his raucous, womanising and irrepressible father, to his first successes in the 50s and 60s as an artist, novelist and playwright. They were years which saw ardent affairs with both women and men, a stormy marriage, the birth of a son, and a traumatic divorce. The book has been described as “full of clear-eyed observation and thoughtful reflection, as well as comic incident … unflinchingly honest and exuberantly entertaining,” while ''The Spectator'' finds it “a remarkable autobiography which subverts everything you thought you knew about love and life.”

Fiction

Since 1955 Colin Spencer has had nine novels as well as numerous short stories published both in the UK and abroad. His work can be divided into the 4 semi-autobiographical works of the ''Generation'' sequence; the two satirical black comedies ''Poppy, Mandragora and the New Sex'', and ''How the Greeks Kidnapped Mrs Nixon'' (republished in paperback under the title ''Cock-Up''); the sexual realist drama ''Panic'', a compassionate examination of the mentality of a child murderer; the experimental ''Asylum'', merging the myths of Oedipus and the Old Testament Fall of Man into a narrative written in a style akin to poetic prose; and his first novel, set mostly in Vienna, ''An Absurd Affair'', which he feels can be sensibly ignored. That first novel was followed in 1963 by ''Anarchists in Love'' the first book of his four-volume

novel sequence A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

''GENERATION'' which the author describes as the main core of his work, and “fictionalised autobiography.” Further volumes in the series ''The Tyranny of Love'', ''Lovers in War'' and ''The Victims of Love'' appeared in 1967, 1969 and 1978. With a Dickensian breadth of characters and social settings, the four volumes follow the saga of the Simpson family from the end of World War I through to the 1960s age of sexual and social experimentation. It focuses in particular on the tortuous search for self-realisation and love by Sundy and Matthew, the two artistically gifted children of the raucously womanising Eddy. The sequence was described by Sir Huw Wheldon as a "work of serious purpose; affecting, hilarious and grave. It is a tapestry of unforgettable characters in all their seaminess and sadness, their idealism and desires."

Theatre

Seven of Colin Spencer's plays have been performed since the first production in December 1966 at the

Hampstead Theatre Club Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

of ''The Ballad of The False Barman''. It was directed by

Robin Phillips Robin Phillips OC (28 February 1940 – 25 July 2015) was an English actor and film director. Life He was born in Haslemere, Surrey in 1940 to Ellen Anne (née Barfoot) and James William Phillips. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic, where a c ...

and featured Caroline Blakiston,

Penelope Keith Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, (née Hatfield; born 2 April 1940) is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms '' The Good Life'' and '' To the M ...

and

Michael Pennington Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is a British actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has writ ...

. The play is a musical fantasy set in a beach bar run by a bald-headed lesbian "barman" and peopled by whores of various sexes and their clientele, including a transvestite thieving vicar. His next play to be performed, ''Spitting Image'', also first appeared at Hampstead in October 1968 before moving to The Duke of York's in the West End. The production was directed by

James Roose-Evans James Roose-Evans (11 November 1927 – 26 October 2022) was a British theatre director, priest, and writer on experimental theatre, ritual and meditation. In 1959 he founded the Hampstead Theatre Club, in London; in 1974 the Bleddfa Centre for ...

and starred

Derek Fowlds Derek James Fowlds (2 September 1937 – 17 January 2020) was an English actor. He was best known for his appearances as "Mr Derek" in ''The Basil Brush Show'' (1969–1973), Bernard Woolley in the sitcom ''Yes Minister'' (1980–1984) and its s ...

Frank Middlemass Francis George Middlemass (28 May 1919 – 8 September 2006) was an English actor, who even in his early career played older roles. He is best remembered for his television roles as Rocky Hardcastle in '' As Time Goes By'', Algy Herries in '' To ...

and

Lally Bowers Kathleen "Lally" Bowers (21 January 1914 – 18 July 1984) was an English actress. Bowers was born in Oldham, Lancashire, where she was educated at Hulme Grammar School. She worked as a secretary before walking-on and understudying at the ...

. Further productions followed in 1969 off Broadway in New York, in Arnhem, The Netherlands, in Vienna and in Australia. The play concerns a homosexual couple who discover that they are expecting a baby, and society's reaction to this unconventional conception.

John Russell Taylor John Russell Taylor (born 19 June 1935) is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such figures in film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, ...

in his book, ''The Second Wave: British Drama of the Sixties'', remarks “for all the play’s cheery light fantastic tcontains altogether more truth than is quite comfortable." The play was revived in a performance at the Hampstead Theatre in 2009 as part of the celebrations of the theatre’s 50th anniversary. Three comedies: ''The Trial of St George'', a satire on British justice when dealing with sexuality, inspired by the Oz Trial; ''Why Mrs Neustadter Always Loses'', a wry monologue by an American divorcee exiled on a Greek island; and ''Keep It in the Family'', a satire concerning a happy incestuous family (which Colin Spencer also directed) appeared between 1972 and 1978 at the

Soho Poly Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

. Interest in his work abroad led to performances of his play ''The Sphinx Mother'', a modern Oedipus, at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...

in 1972, and ''Lilith'', a comedy of surrealist images, at the Schauspielhaus, Vienna in 1979.

Non-fiction

Colin Spencer's first published non-fiction book (written with Chris Barlas), which appeared in 1984, was a treatise on farting, ''Reports from Behind'', illustrated by Spencer cartoons. His moving account of his affair with the Australian theatre director, John Tasker, ''Which of Us Two?'', was first published by Viking in 1990, and then in a paperback edition by Penguin in 1991. ''The Faber Book of Food'', an anthology, collected and written with Claire Clifton, was published by Faber & Faber in 1994. His interest in sexuality and social attitudes towards it led to the publication of ''Homosexuality – a History'' in 1995, and ''The Gay Kama Sutra'' in the following year. His scholarly interest in food culture and history led to the publication of ''The Heretic's Feast – a History of Vegetarianism'' in 1993 (also published in the US in 1995, and winning a special mention in the Premio Langhe Ceretto prize of Italy), the award-winning ''British Food – an Extraordinary Thousand Years of History'' in 2002, and his recently published book ''From Microliths to Microwaves – The Evolution of British Agriculture, Food and Cooking'', an account of the long history of farming, food and cookery in Britain and how our national cuisine was forged.

Cookery books

From early on Colin Spencer's creative instincts were applied to food and cookery, and in 1978 his book ''Gourmet Cooking for Vegetarians'' was published. That was followed through the 80s and 90s by a series of other cookery books, totalling 18 in all. For fourteen years he wrote a regular food column for the ''Guardian''. His column was particularly concerned with exploring current issues and anxieties about food production and manufacture. In 2001 he was described by

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...

as 'the greatest living food writer'.In her column in ''The Telegraph'' 30 June 2001. He has received many awards for his food writing, including the Guild of Food Writers Michael Smith Award, the André Simon Memorial Fund Special Award, the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the Best Culinary History Book in the World, and the Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year Award.

Visual arts

During his twenties numerous of Colin Spencer's drawings were published in ''

'', ''

The Transatlantic Review ''The Transatlantic Review'' (often styled ''the transatlantic review'') was an influential monthly literary magazine edited by Ford Madox Ford in 1924. The magazine was based in Paris but was published in London by Gerald Duckworth and Company. ...

'' and ''

''. A series of drawings of writers of our time was published in ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' in 1959. Those he portrayed included John Betjeman,

, C.P.Snow and his wife

Pamela Hansford Johnson Pamela Hansford Johnson, Baroness Snow, (29 May 1912 – 18 June 1981) was an English novelist, playwright, poet, literary and social critic. Life Hansford Johnson was born in London. Her mother, Amy Clotilda Howson, was a singer and actress, ...

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

, Alan Ross,

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of ...

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

John Lehmann Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann (2 June 1907 – 7 April 1987) was an English poet and man of letters. He founded the periodicals ''New Writing'' and '' The London Magazine'', and the publishing house of John Lehmann Limited. Biography Born i ...

Stevie Smith Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), was an English poet and novelist. She won the Cholmondeley Award and was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. A play, '' Stevie'' by Hugh Whitemore, ba ...

, V.S.Naipaul, and John Osborne, among others. An oil portrait of E.M. Forster hung for many years in his rooms at King's College Cambridge. On his death Forster left it to

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and

Peter Pears Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career starte ...

and it is now in the Britten-Pears Library in Aldeburgh. ColinSpencerPaintingTravellingPlayer

Colin Spencer had huge fun working alongside Katharine Whitehorn to illustrate her column in the national Sunday newspaper, ''The Observer'', with satirical drawings delineating the public's interpretation of fashion trends. He was commissioned by the Royal Opera House to draw their idiosyncratic opera audience for their member's Magazine. He has completed oil portraits for a wide range of private customers and collectors, including Carl Winter, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Lady Rawlinson; Diana Hopkinson; Michael Davidson; and Canon Frederic Hood of Pusey House, Oxford. His work resides in a wide range of private collections amongst those of Melvyn Bragg, Germaine Greer, Derek Grainger, Bob Swash, Diana Athill, Prue Leith and the late Mary Renault and Sir Huw Wheldon. Hi
artistic work
since has ranged from landscape drawings of Winchelsea Beach and Rye countryside to oil portraits of the poet

Harry Fainlight Harry Fainlight (1935–1982) was a British/American poet associated with the Beats movement. He was the younger brother of Ruth Fainlight (b 1931), also a poet, who edited a posthumous volume of his work, ''Selected Poems'', published in 1986. ...

and has lately been exhibited in London, Rye and Brighton. A recent series of paintings entitled ''The Downs'' reflected the sensuous forms of the landscape of the South Downs where he lives. He is currently intensely involved in creating paintings which he describes as "images of the unknown, paths through conflict, compounds of sex and spirit, mysterious reflections, hints and fading memories which unsettle the darkness." The themes of his present paintings are: War, Music, and Sex, the interior life of flowers, the sea bed and how do hills form roots.

Other activities

Colin Spencer has been Co-Chairman (1982), Chairman (1988–90) and Vice-President (1990–99) of The Writers Guild of Great Britain and President of the

Guild of Food Writers The Guild of Food Writers is the professional association of food writers and broadcasters in the United Kingdom. It has around 550 authors, broadcasters, columnists and journalists amongst its members. History On 12 April 1984, a number of lea ...

(1994–99). He continues as a judge for the J R Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.

Works

Fiction

''An Absurd Affair'', 1961, Longmans Green. 1970, Panther Books, (paperback), , . ''Poppy, Mandragora and the New Sex'', 1966, Anthony Blond. 1967, Panther Books, (paperback), , . ''Asylum'', 1966, Anthony Blond. 1970, Panther Books, (paperback), . ''Panic'', 1971, Martin Secker & Warburg, ; . 1973, Panther Books (paperback), , . ''How The Greeks Kidnapped Mrs Nixon'', 1974, Quartet Books, , . 1977, republished as ''Cock-up'', Quartet Books, (paperback), . 1977.

Novel sequence ''Generation''

:''Anarchists in Love'', 1963, Eyre & Spottiswood (with jacket designed by author). 1970, Panther Books, (paperback), . :''The Tyranny of Love'', 1967, Anthony Blond, . 1970, Panther Books (paperback), , . :''Lovers in War'', 1969, Anthony Blond, , . 1970, Panther Books, , . :''The Victims of Love'', 1978, Quartet Books, , . 1980, Quartet Books (paperback), , .

Uncollected short stories

:''Nightworkers'', in ''London Magazine'', vol. 2, no. 12, 1955. : :''An Alien World'', in ''London Magazine'', vol. 3, no. 6, 1956. : :''Nymph and Shepherd'', in ''London Magazine'', vol. 6, no. 8, 1959. : :''It's Anemones for Mabel'', in ''Transatlantic Review'' (London), Spring 1963. :''The Room'', in ''Transatlantic Review'' (London), Summer 1966. : :''Carpaccio's Dream'', in ''Harpers and Queen'' (London), Dec 1985.

Plays produced

''The Ballad of the False Barman'', Dec 1966: Hampstead Theatre Club. Sept 1972: Palace Theatre, Watford. ''Spitting Image'', Sept 1968: Hampstead Theatre Club. Oct 1968: Duke of York's, London. March 1969: Theatre de Lys, New York. Sept 1969:

Schauspielhaus Wuppertal was a , a theatre for plays, in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The 745-seat municipal theatre is on next to the river Wupper in Elberfeld. Designed by , it was opened in 1966, run from 2001 by '' (''Wuppertal Stages'', municipal thea ...

, Germany. Nov 1969: Arnhem, The Netherlands. 1970: Vienna. 1971: Australia. Published in ''Plays and Players'', September 1968. ''The Sphinx Mother'', Aug 1972: Salzburg Festival. ''The Trial of St George'', March 1972: Soho Poly, London. 1972: Thalia Theater, Hamburg. 1972: Der Kammerspielen, Wuppertal. ''Why Mrs Neustadter Always Loses'', Nov 1972: Soho Poly, London. ''Keep It in the Family'' (written and directed by Colin Spencer), 1978: Soho Poly, London. ''Lilith'', Feb 1979: Schauspielhaus, Vienna. ''A Woman Alone'', Feb 1983, performed reading by the RSC at the Pit, Barbican, London

Non-fiction

''Reports From Behind'' (with Chris Barlas), 1984, Enigma Books (with 27 illustrations by Colin Spencer), . ''Which of Us Two? The Story of a Love Affair'', 1990, Viking, . ''The Faber Book of Food, an Anthology'' (with Claire Clifton), 1994, Faber and Faber . ''The Heretic's Feast – a History of Vegetarianism'', 1993, Fourth Estate, . ''Homosexuality – a History'', 1995, Fourth Estate, . ''The Gay Kama Sutra'', 1996, B.T. Batsford, . 1996, Harmony Books, (1st US edition). ''British Food – An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History'', 2002, Grub Street, (illustrated edition), . ''From Microliths to Microwaves, The Evolution of British Agriculture'', Food and Cooking, May 2011, Grub Street, . ''Backing into Light, My Father's Son'', April 2013, Quartet,

Television

''Vandal Rule OK?'', 1977, Documentary on vandalism written, narrated and presented by Colin Spencer. ''Flossie'', 1974, TV play.

Cookery books

''Gourmet Cooking For Vegetarians'', 1978, Andre Deutsch, . ''Good And Healthy'', 1983, Robson Books, . ''Colin Spencer's Vegetarian Wholefood Cookbook'', 1985, Panther Books, 1985, Panther/Granada, (paperback), . ''Cordon Vert, 52 Vegetarian Gourmet Dinner Party Menus'', 1985, Thorsons, / ''Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking'', 1986, Thorsons, . ''The Vegetarians' Healthy Diet Book (Positive Health Guide)'', (with T.A.B. Sanders), 1986, Taylor & Francis, ''The New Vegetarian'', 1986, Elm Tree Books, . 1988 ''Colin Spencer's Fish Cookbook'', 1986, Pan Books, (paperback) . ''One-course Feasts'', 1986, Conran Octopus (spiral comb-bound), . ''Feast For Health'', 1987, Dorling Kindersley, . ''Al Fresco A Feast for Outdoor Entertaining'', 1987, Thorsons, . ''The Romantic Vegetarian: Very Special Meals for That Very Special Occasion'', Thorsons, Feb 1988, . ''Colin Spencer’s Summer Cooking'', 1992, Thorsons, (paperback), . ''The Adventurous Vegetarian'', 1989, Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated, . ''Vegetable Pleasures'', 1992, Fourth Estate, . ''Colin Spencer's Vegetable Guide'', 1995, Conran Octopus, . ''Green Gastronomy'', 1996, Bloomsbury, . ''Mainly Vegetables'', 1998, Tesco.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Colin 1933 births Living people 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people British gay writers English columnists English male dramatists and playwrights English male non-fiction writers English male short story writers English short story writers Historians of vegetarianism British LGBT dramatists and playwrights English LGBT writers Vegetarian cookbook writers Writers from London

Early and personal life

Fiction

Theatre

Non-fiction

Cookery books

Visual arts

Other activities

Works

Fiction

Novel sequence ''Generation''

Uncollected short stories

Plays produced

Non-fiction

Television

Cookery books

See also

References

External links