Percy Howard Newby

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(25 June 1918 – 6 September 1997) was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

, his novel ''

Something to Answer For ''Something to Answer For'' is a 1968 novel by the English writer P. H. Newby. Its chief claim to fame is that in 1969 it won the inaugural Booker Prize, which would go on to become one of the major literary awards in the English-speaking world. ...

'' having received the inaugural award in 1969.

Early life

P.H. Newby, known as Howard Newby, was born in Crowborough, Sussex on 25 June 1918 and was educated at

Hanley Castle Grammar School Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, and

St Paul's College of Education ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

. In October 1939 he was sent to France to serve in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a private in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

. His unit was one of the last to be evacuated. Afterwards he was sent to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and served in the

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian desert.

Career

Newby was released from military service in December 1942, and then taught

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

King Fouad University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

until 1946. One of his students was the Egyptian editor

Mursi Saad El-Din Mursi may refer to: People Surname *Abdullah Morsi (1994–2019), son of former President Mohamed Morsi *Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi (1219–1287), Sufi saint * Ahmed Morsi (born 1930), Egyptian artist * Ali Ali El Morsi, Egyptian chief scout, former ...

. From 1949 to 1978 he was employed by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, 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 The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

. 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 John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter. Biography Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school. He worked in an advertising agency until the World War II, when as an intending ...

. He was appointed a

for his work as managing director of BBC Radio. In his obituary author, friend and colleague

Anthony Thwaite Anthony Simon Thwaite (23 June 1930 – 22 April 2021) was an English poet and critic, widely known as the editor of his friend Philip Larkin's collected poems and letters. Early years and education Born in Chester, England, to Yorkshire par ...

states: "P. H. Newby was one of the best English novelists of the second half of the century."

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 ''The Picnic at Sakkara'' is a 1955 novel by P.H. Newby. It is about a lecturer at Cairo University, Edgar Perry, during the rule of King Farouk. He becomes tutor to a pasha, and is swept into a conflict between Western ways and the Moslem Broth ...

'' (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) * ''

'' (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

External links

Information site for P.H. Newby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newby, P. H. 1918 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English novelists Newby, Howard Booker Prize winners British Army personnel of World War II Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Hanley Castle High School Royal Army Medical Corps soldiers