Sir Malcolm Bradbury: Literature Man
Sir
Malcolm Bradbury: Lack of elitism
Author, television scriptwriter and literary critic Sir Malcolm Bradbury was as famous for his teaching skills as for his own screenplays and novels.
Like
his most famous character, the eponymous History Man, Sir Malcolm was committed
to spreading a love for "serious" literature beyond intellectual
circles, and paving the way for a new wave of British writing.
He
was determined that his 40-plus books of literary criticism would not be not
befuddled by academic terms, and could be read by a wide audience.
Sir
Malcolm's own lack of élitism was instilled at an
early age. The son of a railwayman, he spent much of his childhood in Harrow,
before the family returned north during World War II.
Attending
West Bridgford Grammar School in Nottingham, Sir
Malcolm suffered a heart condition that kept him off the sports field and in
the library.
Such
academic diligence cemented Sir Malcolm's love for literature and ensured that
he was of the first generation of grammar school boys to enjoy higher
education, in his case at the University of Leicester.
Armed
with a first class degree and married to the librarian from Nottinghamshire
County Library, he began his first full-time job at Hull University in 1959.
The
same year, he wrote his first novel, Eating People is Wrong,
and embarked on his parallel career of writer and teacher.
This
and his other five novels, including this year's To The
Hermitage, were all built on the solid foundation of his academic life.
The
young professor, however, denied his stories were mere "campus
novels", but instead "about intellectuals capable of irony, concerned
with issues of change and liberation, the problems of humanism, and so might
well have been in other settings".
His
most significant contribution to the cause of British writing began in 1965
when, with Angus Wilson, he set up a creative writing MA course at the
University of East Anglia.
His
intention was to provide apprentice writers with a traditional academic
environment.
His
very first student there was Ian McEwan, author of Enduring Love and Amsterdam.
Kazuo
Ishiguro was another prodigy to enjoy the fruits of Sir Malcolm's guidance.
Both men went on to win the Booker Prize.
Indeed,
the tutor helped so many fledgling writers find their voice that he was
labelled "the creative writing man" and Oxbridge literati looked on
this successful group as a "creative mafia".
He
retired from teaching the course in 1995, and the now Poet Laureate Andrew
Motion took over.
Sir
Malcolm always found the energy to put his own pen to paper.
As
well as his own novels, he wrote successful television adaptations of such
books as Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue, Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm and
Kingsley Amis's The Green Man.
Christopher
Hampton adapted one of Sir Malcolm's own novels in 1981.
The
tale of a radical and sexually predatory sociology teacher, The History Man,
brought its author enduring celebrity beyond his academic circle.
Although
his novel Rates of Exchange was nominated for the
Booker Prize in 1982, Professor Bradbury became the chairman of the judges for
the prize the following year.
This
was fitting for a man steeped in a love for literature and words beyond his own
fictional output.
Knighted
this year, Sir Malcolm remained most celebrated for his influence on a
generation of aspiring novelists. His name was synonymous with new British writing.
Published on Tuesday, 28 November, 2000,
13:21 GMT
BBC © MMIII
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1044887.stm
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