Stanley Middleton was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire in 1919. He published his first novel, A Short Answer, in 1958 and went on to publish 45 novels in a career spanning fifty years. He was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974 with Holiday. Stanley Middleton died in July 2009.
Middleton is a born writer; unpretentious, discerning, intelligent, and virtually incapable of writing a duff sentence. He is the Chekhov of suburbia; I recommend him. -- James Runcie Daily Telegraph As ever with Middleton, the content is quiet and undramatic but the treatment makes it highly readable... there is never a dull moment. Sunday Times Enlivening and heartening. Times Literary Supplement A sharp and faithful picture of middle-class provincial life. New Statesman