The Life of a Long-Distance Writer: the authorised biography of Alan Sillitoe

Richard Bradford

Peter Owen Publishers publish their lead non-fiction title for 2008 on
September 15th. Written with the close co-operation of Alan Sillitoe
himself, The Life of a Long Distance Writer is not only the definitive work
on the legendary writer in his 80th birthday year, it also promises to be
perhaps the most controversial literary biography of the last decade.
Alan Sillitoe has allowed Richard Bradford unrestriced access to his papers
and personal archive, enabling Bradford to build the first comprehensive
portrait of this brilliant and often contradictory figure. Within it,
Bradford reveals – among other things – that Sillitoe, though proud of his
background and Nottingham hometown, rejects the 'working-class writer' tag
that has been thrust on him, loathes political correctness in all its forms
and has retained for a long time a somewhat unfashionable Zionism, strongly
sympathetic to those who want to protect the Jewish homeland. As well as
this, Bradford delves into Silltoe's literary and artistic liasions across
mediums, perhaps most notably a long and close friendship with Poet
Laureate, Ted Hughes.

This is the third literary biography from RICHARD BRADFORD to be published
by Peter Owen, the first two being the acclaimed works on Kingsley Amis and
Philip Larkin. He is currently working on the authorised biography of Martin
Amis (also for Peter Owen), scheduled to be published in 2009.