Stan Barstow

Stan Barstow
BornStanley Barstow
(1928-06-28)28 June 1928
Horbury, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died1 August 2011(2011-08-01) (aged 83)
Baglan, Neath Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales
OccupationNovelist, playwright and scriptwriter
EducationOssett Grammar School
Open University
Literary movementSocial realism
Spouse
  • Constance Kershaw
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1951, separated 1990)​
PartnerDiana Griffiths (1990–2011)
Children2

Stanley Barstow FRSL (28 June 1928 – 1 August 2011)[1] was an English novelist.[2]

Biography

Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School. He worked as a draughtsman and salesman for an engineering company.[3] He was best known for his 1960 novel A Kind of Loving, which has been turned into a film, a television series, a radio play and a stage play. The author's other novels included Ask Me Tomorrow (1962), The Watchers on the Shore (1966) and The Right True End (1976). He frequently attended public events in Ossett, where he grew up, and Horbury, his birthplace.[citation needed]

Barstow's other works included Joby, which was turned into a television play starring Patrick Stewart, A Raging Calm, A Season with Eros, A Brother’s Tale, Just You Wait and See, Modern Delights and an autobiography, In My Own Good Time (2001). He also wrote plays and short stories.[citation needed]

Barstow married Connie Kershaw in 1951 with whom he had two children, Neil and Gillian. In the late 1980s, he met Diana Griffiths who was beginning to learn her trade as a writer with Barstow's help.[4] He and Connie Kershaw separated in 1990, though never divorced. Stan started a new life with Griffiths, now a writer in her own right, with eight original plays and nearly twenty dramatisations to her credit. Later he lived in Pontardawe, South Wales, with her.[5] Stan Barstow died on 1 August 2011, aged 83.

The Stan Barstow Memorial Garden in Horbury is named after him.[6]

Bibliography

Novels

  • A Kind of Loving (1960)
  • Ask Me Tomorrow (1962)
  • Joby (1964)
  • The Watchers on the Shore (1966)
  • A Raging Calm (1968)
  • Through the Green Woods (1968)
  • The Right True End (1976)
  • A Brother's Tale (1980)
  • Just You Wait and See (1986)
  • B-Movie (1987)
  • Give Us This Day (1989)
  • Next of Kin (1991)

Short Story Collections

  • The Desperados and Other Stories (1961)
  • The Human Element and Other Stories (1969)
  • A Season with Eros (1971)
  • A Casual Acquaintance and Other Stories (1976)
  • The Glad Eye and Other Stories (1984)
  • The Likes of Us: Stories of Five Decades (2013)

Plays

  • Stringer's Last Stand (1972) (with Alfred Bradley)
  • Joby: a Television Play (1977)
  • 'We Could Always Fit a Sidecar' in Out of the Air: Five Plays for Radio (1978)
  • The Human Element, and Albert's Part: Two Television Plays (1984)

Autobiography

  • In My Own Good Time (2001)

References

  1. ^ Haywood, Ian (1 August 2011). "Obituary: Stan Barstow". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Stan Barstow". Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  3. ^ "The Literature of Stan Barstow: A Biography". Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  4. ^ "Ossett History - The People of Ossett". www.ossett.net. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  5. ^ "Stan Barstow, British author of 'A Kind of Loving,' dies at 83". The Washington Post. 3 August 2011. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012.
  6. ^ "SE2918:The Stan Barstow Garden, Horbury". Archived from the original on 29 April 2022.