Ian McEwan

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Ian McEwan

FRSL
McEwan in 2011
McEwan in 2011
BornIan Russell McEwan
(1948-06-21) 21 June 1948 (age 75)
Aldershot, Hampshire, England
OccupationNovelist, screenwriter
Alma materUniversity of Sussex
University of East Anglia
Period1975–present
SpousePenny Allen (1982–1995)
Annalena McAfee (1997–present)
Children2
Website
ianmcewan.com

Ian Russell McEwan

British culture".[1]

McEwan began his career writing sparse,

Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His later novels have included The Children Act, Nutshell, and Machines Like Me. He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize
.

Early life and education

McEwan was born in

née Moore).[2] His father was a working-class Scotsman who had worked his way up through the army to the rank of major.[3]

McEwan spent much of his childhood in East Asia (including Singapore), Germany, and North Africa (including Libya), where his father was posted. His family returned to England when he was 12 years old. He was educated at Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk; the University of Sussex, where he received a degree in English literature in 1970; and the University of East Anglia, where he undertook a master's degree in literature (with the option to submit creative writing instead of a critical dissertation).[4]

Career

1975–1987: Short stories and "Ian Macabre" phase

McEwan's first published work was a collection of short stories,

1987 Whitbread Novel Award
.

1988–2007: Mainstream success and Booker Prize win

After The Child in Time, McEwan began to move away from the darker, more unsettling material of his earlier career and towards the style that would see him reach a wider readership and gain significant critical acclaim. This new phase began with the publication of the mid-Cold War espionage drama The Innocent (1990), and Black Dogs (1992), a quasi-companion piece reflecting on the aftermath of the Nazi era in Europe and the end of the Cold War. McEwan followed these works with his second book for children, The Daydreamer (1994).

His 1997 novel,

Booker Prize.[7][8] It was adapted into a film in 2004. In 1998, he won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam.[9] His next novel, Atonement (2001), received considerable acclaim; Time magazine named it the best novel of 2002, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.[10] In 2007, the critically acclaimed film Atonement, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, was released in cinemas worldwide. His next work, Saturday (2005), follows an especially eventful day in the life of a successful neurosurgeon. Saturday won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 2005. His novel On Chesil Beach (2007) was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan in 2017, for which McEwan wrote the screenplay. McEwan has also written a number of produced screenplays, a stage play, children's fiction, and an oratorio and a libretto titled For You with music composed by Michael Berkeley
.

In 2006, McEwan was accused of plagiarism; specifically that a passage in Atonement (2001) closely echoed a passage from a memoir, No Time for Romance, published in 1977 by Lucilla Andrews. McEwan acknowledged using the book as a source for his work.[11] McEwan had included a brief note at the end of Atonement, referring to Andrews's autobiography, among several other works. The incident recalled critical controversy over his debut novel The Cement Garden, key elements of the plot of which closely mirrored some of those of Our Mother's House, a 1963 novel by British author Julian Gloag, which had also been made into a film. McEwan denied charges of plagiarism, claiming he was unaware of the earlier work.[12] Writing in The Guardian in November 2006, a month after Andrews' death, McEwan professed innocence of plagiarism while acknowledging his debt to the author of No Time for Romance.[13][14][15] Several authors defended him, including John Updike, Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and Thomas Pynchon.[16][17]

2008–present: Political works and continued acclaim

McEwan's first novel of the 2010s, Solar, was published by Jonathan Cape and Doubleday in March 2010.[18] In June 2008 at the Hay Festival, McEwan gave a surprise reading of this work-in-progress. The novel includes "a scientist who hopes to save the planet" from the threat of climate change,[19] with inspiration for the novel coming from a Cape Farewell expedition McEwan made in 2005 in which "artists and scientists ... spent several weeks aboard a ship near the north pole discussing environmental concerns". McEwan observed: "The novel's protagonist Michael Beard has been awarded a Nobel prize for his pioneering work on physics, and has discovered that winning the coveted prize has interfered with his work."[19] He said that the work was not a comedy: "I hate comic novels; it's like being wrestled to the ground and being tickled, being forced to laugh",[19] instead, that it had extended comic stretches.

Solar was followed by McEwan's twelfth novel,

meta-fictional historical novel set in the 1970s,[20] and was published in late August 2012.[21] In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper to coincide with publication, McEwan revealed that the impetus for writing Sweet Tooth had been "a way in which I can write a disguised autobiography".[22] He revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, in November 2012, that the film rights to Sweet Tooth had been bought by Working Title Films – the company that had adapted Atonement as a film.[23] Sweet Tooth was followed two years later by The Children Act, which concerned High Court judges, UK family law, and the right to die.[24]

Two years after The Children Act, McEwan's 2016 novel

1987 UK general election. In September 2019, McEwan announced a quick surprise follow-up novella, The Cockroach.[27] McEwan published his novel Lessons in 2022 to much critical acclaim. Andrew Billen of The Times calls it McEwan's "500-page masterpiece",[28] and The New Statesman claims the novel "may well be remembered as one of the finest humanist novels of its age".[29]

Honours and awards

McEwan has been nominated for the Booker Prize six times to date, winning the prize for Amsterdam in 1998.[30] His other nominations were for The Comfort of Strangers (1981, shortlisted), Black Dogs (1992, shortlisted), Atonement (2001, shortlisted), Saturday (2005, longlisted), and On Chesil Beach (2007, shortlisted). McEwan also received nominations for the International Booker Prize in 2005 and 2007.[31] He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to literature.[32][33] In 2005, he was the first recipient of Dickinson College's Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholar and Writers Program Award,[34] in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 2008, McEwan was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by University College London, where he had previously taught English literature.

In 2006, the Board of Trustees of the Kenyon Review honoured McEwan with the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, writing that "McEwan's stories, novels, and plays are notable for their fierce artistic dramas, exploring unanticipated and often brutal collisions between the ordinary and the extraordinary".[35] In 2008, The Times named McEwan among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[36] In 2010, McEwan received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.

On 20 February 2011, McEwan was awarded the

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – surely a beam of hope in a dark landscape, though denigrated by the Israeli religious right and Hamas. If BWISP is against this particular project, then clearly we have nothing more to say to each other".[41] McEwan's acceptance speech discussed the complaints against him and provided further insight into his reasons for accepting the award.[42] He also said he will donate the amount of the prize, "ten thousand dollars to Combatants for Peace, an organisation that brings together Israeli ex-soldiers and Palestinian ex-fighters".[42]

In 2012, the University of Sussex presented McEwan with its 50th Anniversary Gold Medal in recognition of his contributions to literature.[43] In 2014, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas paid $2 million for McEwan's literary archives. The archives include drafts of all of his later novels. McEwan commented that his novel Atonement started out as a science fiction story set "two or three centuries in the future".[44] In 2018, McEwan was awarded the Bauer-Incroci di civiltà prize in Venice for his literary career.[45] In 2019, McEwan received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[46]

In 2020, McEwan was awarded the

Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.[48]

Views on religion and politics

Ian McEwan

In 2008, McEwan publicly spoke out against

atheist,[49] said that certain streams of Christianity were "equally absurd" and that he did not "like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others".[50]
McEwan put forward the following statement on his official site and blog after claiming he was misinterpreted:

Certain remarks of mine to an Italian journalist have been widely misrepresented in the UK press, and on various websites. Contrary to reports, my remarks were not about Islam, but about Islamism – perhaps 'extremism' would be a better term. I grew up in a Muslim country – Libya – and have only warm memories of a dignified, tolerant and hospitable Islamic culture. I was referring in my interview to a tiny minority who preach violent
US foreign policy. It is merely to invoke a common humanity which I hope would be shared by all religions as well as all non-believers.'[51]

In 2007,

10:10 project, a movement that supports positive action on climate change by encouraging people to reduce their carbon emissions.[54] On winning the Jerusalem Prize in 2011, McEwan defended himself against criticism for accepting the prize in light of opposition to Israeli policies, saying: "If you didn't go to countries whose foreign policy or domestic policy is screwed up, you'd never get out of bed".[55][56] On accepting the honour, he spoke in favour of Israel's existence, security, and freedoms,[57] while strongly attacking Hamas, Israel's policies in Gaza, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories;[58] these were notable words since the audience included politicians such as the Israeli President Shimon Peres and Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem. McEwan also personally attended a protest in Sheikh Jarrah against the expansion of Israeli settlements.[59]

In 2013, McEwan sharply criticised

2010 UK general election that the then current coalition government of the United Kingdom should end, stating "Let's either have a Tory government or let Ed Miliband try something different" to try and turn around a country of "great inequity". McEwan is traditionally a Labour Party supporter and said he had his "fingers crossed" that Miliband would become Prime Minister.[61]

Following

Brexit campaign in June 2016, McEwan wrote a critical opinion article for The Guardian titled "Britain is changed utterly. Unless this summer is just a bad dream", published on 9 July 2016.[62] In the article, McEwan wrote of the consequences of the Brexit vote: "Everything is changed utterly. Or about to be, as soon as your new leader is chosen. The country you live in, the parliamentary democracy that ruled it, for good or bad, has been trumped by a plebiscite of dubious purpose and unacknowledged status. From our agriculture to our science and our universities, from our law to our international relations to our commerce and trade and politics, and who and what we are in the world – all is up for a curious, unequal renegotiation with our European neighbours".[62] McEwan's piece appeared to conclude with a sense of bewilderment and unease at how events were panning out, anticipating the ascension of Theresa May to the leadership of the Conservative Party and her appointment as Prime Minister, and noting how the previously unthinkable in British politics had actually happened.[62] McEwan's article was published on 9 July, and May effectively won the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election on 11 July, which precipitated her appointment as Prime Minister two days later. In May 2017, speaking at a London conference on Brexit, apparently referring to what he believed to be the older demographic of leave voters, McEwan stated that "one and a half million oldsters freshly in their graves" would result in a putative second referendum returning a Remain outcome.[63]

Personal life

McEwan lives in London, and has been married twice. His first marriage was to Penny Allen, an astrologer and alternative practitioner, with whom he had two sons. The marriage ended in 1995. Two years later in 1997, McEwan married Annalena McAfee, a journalist and writer who was formerly the editor of The Guardian's Review section.[64]

In 2002, McEwan discovered that he had a brother who had been given up for adoption during the Second World War; the story became public in 2007.[65] The brother, a bricklayer named David Sharp, was born six years earlier than McEwan when their mother was married to a different man. Sharp has the same mother and father as McEwan but was born from an affair that occurred before they married. After her first husband was killed in combat, McEwan's mother married her lover, and Ian was born a few years later.[66] The brothers are in regular contact and McEwan has written a foreword to Sharp's memoir.

McEwan was a long-time friend of the writer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens.[20]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ "The 100 most powerful people in British culture". The Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2016. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Ian McEwan". Film reference. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  3. ^ Cooke, Rachel (19 August 2012). "Ian McEwan: 'I had the time of my life'". The Guardian.
  4. ^ Jaillant, Lise. "Myth Maker: Malcolm Bradbury and the Creation of Creative Writing at UEA". New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing (2016)
  5. ^ Ian McEwan: Writers and Their Work by Kiernan Ryan publ 1994
  6. ^ Walsh, John (27 January 2007). "Ian McEwan: Here's the twist". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 21 January 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2007.
  7. ^ Knorr, Katherine (9 October 1997). "Enduring Love". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 30 March 2008. Retrieved 22 March 2007.
  8. ^ "Ian McEwan's Family Values". Boston Review. Archived from the original on 2 October 2006. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  9. ^ "Prize archive: 1998". Booker Prize. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
  10. ^ Man Booker Prize Website Retrieved 13 April 2010
  11. ^ Cowell, Alan (28 November 2006). "Eyebrows Are Raised Over Passages in a Best Seller by Ian McEwan". The New York Times.
  12. ^ Alan Cowell (28 November 2006). "Eyebrows Are Raised Over Passages in a Best Seller by Ian McEwan". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
  13. ^ Ian McEwan (27 November 2006). "An inspiration, yes. Did I copy from another author? No". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  14. ^ Hoyle, Ben (27 November 2006). "McEwan hits back at call for atonement". The Times. London. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  15. ^ "McEwan accused of copying writer's memoirs". PR inside. Archived from the original on 26 March 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  16. ^ Reynolds, Nigel (6 December 2006). "Recluse speaks out to defend McEwan". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 4 September 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  17. ^ Bell, Dan (6 December 2006). "Pynchon backs McEwan in 'copying' row". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  18. ^ "Solar". Ian Mcewan's Website. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  19. ^ a b c Soal, Judith (2 June 2008). "McEwan sees funny side of climate change in novel reading". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  20. ^ a b Farndale, Nigel (7 March 2011). "Ian McEwan interview". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011.
  21. ^ "Sweet Tooth" Archived 3 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine, at IanMcEwan.com.
  22. ^ "In the line of fire SFA hands Davis Scottish Cup final role". www.scotsman.com. 6 May 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  23. ^ Chai, Barbara (27 October 2012). "Working Title Secures Film Rights to Ian McEwan's New Novel, 'Sweet Tooth'". The Wall Street Journal.
  24. ^ Stock, Jon (3 May 2013). "Ian McEwan: John le Carré deserves Booker". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  25. ^ McEwan, Ian (21 March 2016). "My Purple Scented Novel". Retrieved 28 March 2018 – via www.newyorker.com.
  26. ^ My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan. www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  27. ^ Cain, Sian (12 September 2019). "Ian McEwan announces surprise Brexit satire, The Cockroach". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  28. ISSN 0140-0460
    . Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  29. ^ Thomas-Corr, Johanna (31 August 2022). "Ian McEwan and the mess of living". New Statesman. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  30. ^ "Ian McEwan | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. 21 June 1948. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  31. ^ "Man Booker". Themanbookerprize.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  32. ^ "No. 55710". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1999. p. 10.
  33. ^ "Ian McEwan". Contemporary Writers. British Council. Archived from the original on 17 June 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
  34. ^ "Poet Inspires Dickinson College Alumna's $1.5 Million Gift". 23 September 2005. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011.
  35. ^ "Kenyon Review for Literary Achievement". KenyonReview.org.
  36. ^ Hosking, Patrick; Wighton, David (5 January 2008). "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". The Times. London. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  37. ^ "the jerusalem prize". Jerusalem Book Fair. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  38. ^ "McEwan defends decision to accept Jerusalem Prize". Archived 29 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine Jewish Journal. 26 January 2011. 26 January 2011.
  39. ^ Bates, Stephen (19 January 2011). "Ian McEwan says he will accept Jerusalem prize". The Guardian. London.
  40. ^ "Ian McEwan should turn down the prize". The Guardian. London. 27 January 2011.
  41. ^ "Israel critics should respect my decision" The Guardian, 26 January 2011.
  42. ^ a b "Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech". Ianmcewan.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  43. ^ "Sussex awards gold medals to its world-leading alumni and past academics", University of Sussex, News, 13 July 2012.
  44. ^ "Ransom Center Pays $2 Million for Ian McEwan Papers", The New York Times, 16 May 2014.
  45. ^ Pagan, Alberto (4 April 2018). "Ian McEwan inuagura Incorci di Civiltà 2018". NonSoloCinema (in Italian). Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  46. American Academy of Achievement
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  47. ^ "Awardees - Goethe-Institut". www.goethe.de. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  48. ^ "No. 64082". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2023. p. B6.
  49. ^ Solomon, Deborah (2 December 2007). "A Sinner's Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  50. ^ Popham, Peter (22 June 2008). "'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2008.
  51. ^ Ian McEwan (26 June 2008). "McEwan Addresses Recent Statement on Islamism". ian-mcewan.blogspot.com. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
  52. ^ Flood, Alison (24 October 2008). "Ian McEwan condemns 'thuggery' of Neapolitan mafia". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  53. ^ "Iran stoning case woman ordered to name campaigners". The Guardian. London. 22 July 2010.
  54. ^ "Who's doing 10:10? | 10:10". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  55. ^ "Palestinian writers shun Ian McEwan over Israel honour". Reuters. 18 February 2011.
  56. ^ Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv (18 February 2011). "McEwan to accept Israeli book award but criticise occupation". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  57. ^ "RCW". Rcwlitagency.com. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  58. ^ "Ian McEwan attacks Israeli policies | Jerusalem prize". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  59. ^ Gordon, Evelyn (20 February 2011). "Ian McEwan joins left-wing protest in Sheikh Jarrah". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  60. ^ Booth and Harriet Sherwood, "Noam Chomsky helped lobby Stephen Hawking to stage Israel boycott", The Guardian, 10 May 2013.
  61. ^ a b "Iraq war marchers 'vindicated' a decade on - Ian McEwan", 4 News, 11 February 2013.
  62. ^ a b c Ian McEwan, "Britain is changed utterly. Unless this summer is just a bad dream", The Guardian, 9 July 2016.
  63. ^ Dan Roberts, "Death of '1.5m oldsters' could swing second Brexit vote, says Ian McEwan", The Guardian, 12 May 2017
  64. ^ O'Kelly, Lisa (10 April 2011). "Annalena McAfee: 'I see myself as a recovering journalist'". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  65. ^ Cowell, Alan (17 January 2007). "Ian McEwan's life takes twist with discovery of a brother". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 23 March 2007.
  66. ^ "Novelist McEwan discovers brother". BBC News. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2007.
  67. ^ McEwan, Ian (21 March 2016). "My Purple Scented Novel". New Yorker. Retrieved 25 July 2018.

Further reading

Interviews

External links

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