The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Writer who drew on working class roots for fame dies
Arts: Rugby career used to pen most famous work
WriterDavid Storey, author of This Sporting Life and Saville, has died at the age of 83.
The novelist, playwright and screenwriter created a string of award-winning novels and plays including the books Flight Into Camden and Passmore and the plays The Restoration Of Arnold Middleton, The Contractor, Home and The Changing Room.
He died peacefully with his family around him.
The Sporting Life, published in 1960, was Mr Storey’s debut novel based on his experiences as a professional rugby league player. He later adapted the book for the film of the same name starring Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts.
A spokesman for his four children said: “Dad died peacefully with his family around him. He gave and inspired great love, drewus out and showed us how the world really is.”
Frequently drawing on hisYorkshire working-class background, Mr Storey won the Man Booker Prize in 1976 for Saville, the story of a man coming to terms with his family.
His play, Home, starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson, and In Celebration, starring Alan Bates and Brian Cox, were turned into films directed by Lindsay Anderson.
In recent years, Mr Storey returned to painting and drawing and an exhibition of his latest work entitled A Tender Tumult was held at the Hepworth Gallery in the summer of last year.
The son of a miner, Storey was born on July 13, 1933 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, andattendedthe city’s Queen Elizabeth grammar school.
He gained widespread recognition for himself, alongside a number of working-class writers from Yorkshire including Stan Barstow, author of A Kind of Loving and John Braine, who penned Room at the Top.
In their writing, all three shared a similarly frank and realistic approach.
Mr Storey’s wife, Barbara Hamilton, predeceased him in 2015.