Stanley Ambrose Harrington Reynolds (1934–2016) was an American journalist, author, and critic who spent most of his life in the UK. Reynolds was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts on 27 November 1934, to Ambrose Harrington Reynolds, a sales manager for the

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and headquartered at the RJR Plaza Building. Founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, it is the second-largest tobacco comp ...

, and Irene Ducharme, who was French-Canadian. He was raised as a Catholic, and spoke only French until he was four. He served in the US military with the First Infantry Division. He met his first wife, Gillian Morton, in Holyoke; she was from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and was spending a year studying at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

. The couple moved to the UK together, where they married in 1958. They returned to the US for a year, and Reynolds worked as a reporter for ''The Providence Journal'' in Rhode Island, but the couple had returned to the UK by 1960. Reynolds worked 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 ...

'' in the 1960s, and published his first novel, ''Better Dead than Red'', in 1964; it was praised by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

as "savagely funny". He also wrote the lyrics for a production of

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

's '' Androcles and the Lion''. He became ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' television reviewer in 1972. By this time, he had turned freelance, and wrote for ''The Guardian'', ''The Times'', and ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'', where he took a job as literary editor in 1980. Around 1980, he made a BBC documentary called ''Great Little Railways'', about a trip through the

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

ean

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. Later he contributed to '' The European''. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1975. In an interview in 2018, his first wife, the journalist Gillian Reynolds, reported that she was the victim of domestic violence. "When sober he was lovely, when drunk monstrous", she said. She gained custody of the couple's three sons. He married Jane McLoughlin in 2004. He wrote crime novels included ''Death Dyed Blonde'', which appeared in 2008. He was a notoriously heavy drinker, but gave up alcohol in 1984. He had a serious heart attack in 2003 and became increasingly disabled, till he was unable to walk. He died on 27 November 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Stanley 1934 births 2016 deaths American male journalists Obituary writers People from Massachusetts Punch (magazine) people Writers from Holyoke, Massachusetts