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.

"A deeply moving, deeply satisfying book." Observer "What is so extraordinary about Mr Middleton's talent is that, despite implacable domesticity, he is not trivial... Mr Middleton does not wish to change anybody's view of the world; he only wants to help the readers understand and better the view of it that they already have, and his quietness, honesty and patience do indeed lead him to success in that endeavour." -- Bernard Levin "At first glance, or even at second, Stanley Middleton's world is easily recognizable... The excellence of art, for Middleton is an exact vision of real things as they are. And because he is himself so exact an observer, his world at third glance can seem strange and disturbing or newly and brilliantly lit with colour." -- A.S. Byatt "Enlivening and heartening." TLS

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.

"A deeply moving, deeply satisfying book." Observer "What is so extraordinary about Mr Middleton's talent is that, despite implacable domesticity, he is not trivial... Mr Middleton does not wish to change anybody's view of the world; he only wants to help the readers understand and better the view of it that they already have, and his quietness, honesty and patience do indeed lead him to success in that endeavour." -- Bernard Levin "At first glance, or even at second, Stanley Middleton's world is easily recognizable... The excellence of art, for Middleton is an exact vision of real things as they are. And because he is himself so exact an observer, his world at third glance can seem strange and disturbing or newly and brilliantly lit with colour." -- A.S. Byatt "Enlivening and heartening." TLS