Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
University praises former student for his Nobel success
The latest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature spent four years studying English in Canterbury.
Kazuo Ishiguro, who picked up the top international prize on Thursday, was a student at the city’s University of Kent campus in the 1970s.
The 62-year-old, whose novels include The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, says it is “flabbergastingly flattering” to be the 110th recipient of the award.
He told the BBC: “It’s a magnificent honour, mainly because it means that I’m in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived, so that’s a terrific commendation.
“The world is in a very uncertain moment and I would hope all the Nobel Prizes would be a force for something positive.”
Born in Nagasaki, Japan, Ishiguro moved with his family to Surrey in the 1960s so his father could begin research at the National Institute of Oceanography.
He studied for a bachelor’s degree in arts, English and philosophy at the University of Kent between 1974 and 1978.
He has since written eight books which have been translated into more than 40 languages and spawned two hit films. He was awarded an OBE in 1995.
After learning of his Nobel Prize success, the university’s head of English, Prof Wendy Parkins, said: “The university offers its warmest congratulations on his success.
“He is one of those rare writers whose work engages both our thoughts and emotions in a beguiling way.”
Philosophy lecturer Dr Graeme Forbes said: “People not familiar with philosophy sometimes ask ‘what can you do with that?’
“Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels provide a compelling answer to this question: you can make us laugh, make us cry, and make us reflect deeply on the world around us, sometimes all at once.
“His Nobel Prize is a recognition of how valuable a thing that is to do with philosophy, and how well he has done it.”