David Malcolm Storey (13 July 1933 – 27 March 2017) was an English

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, award-winning

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player. He won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

in 1976 for his novel '' Saville''. He also won the MacMillan Fiction Award for ''

This Sporting Life ''This Sporting Life'' is a 1963 British kitchen sink realism, kitchen sink drama (film and television), drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. Based on the This Sporting Life (novel), 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey, which won th ...

'' in 1960.

Early life and career

Storey was born on 13 July 1933 in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, the son of a coal miner, Frank Richmond Story, and Lily (née Cartwright) Story. He was educated at QEGS Wakefield. He continued his education at London's

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, and supported himself there by playing

for Leeds RLFC as a for the "A" team, with occasional appearances in the first. His plays include ''The Restoration of Arnold Middleton'', ''

The Changing Room ''The Changing Room'' is a 1971 play by David Storey, set in a men's changing room before, during and after a rugby league football game. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 9 November 1971, directed by Lindsay Anderson. The 1973 Broadway ...

'', ''Cromwell'', ''

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

'', and ''Stages''. His novels include '' Flight into Camden'', which won the 1961

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kin ...

and the 1963

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to ...

; and '' Saville'', which won the 1976

. He wrote the screenplay for ''

'' (1963), directed by

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered fo ...

, adapted from his first novel of the same name, originally published in 1960, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. The film was the beginning of a long professional association with Anderson, whose film version of Storey's play '' In Celebration'' was released as part of the

American Film Theatre From 1973 to 1975, using approximately 500 movie theaters across the US, The American Film Theatre presented two seasons of film adaptations of well-known plays. Each film was shown only four times at each theatre. By design, these were not films ...

series in 1975. ''

'' and ''Early Days'' (both starred Sir

Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...

; ''Home'' also starred Sir

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Britis ...

) were made into television films. Storey's novel ''Pasmore'' was shortlisted for the

National Life Stories National Life Stories (NLS) is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the "National Life Story Collection") based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. ...

conducted an oral history interview (C464/67) with David Storey in 2008-2009 for its National Life Stories General collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, Storey, David (1 of 12). National Life Story Collection: General, The British Library Board, 2009
. Retrieved 1 February 2018.

Personal life and death

Grave of David Storey in Highgate Cemetery

In 1956, Storey married Barbara Rudd Hamilton, with whom he had four children. Barbara Storey died in 2015. Storey died on 27 March 2017 in London at the age of 83 and was buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

. The cause was

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

and

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

. Survivors include his two sons, Jake and Sean; two daughters, Helen and

Kate Kate may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...

; a brother, Anthony; and six grandchildren.

Works

Novels

*''

'' (1960) (made into the 1963 film ''

'') *'' Flight into Camden'' (1961) - winner of the 1963

*''Radcliffe'' (1963) *'' Pasmore'' (1972) – winner of the 1973

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Iri ...

*''A Temporary Life'' (1973) () *''Edward'' (1973) () *'' Saville'' (1976) – winner of the 1976

*''A Prodigal Child'' (1982) *''Present Times'' (1984) *''The Phoenix'' (1993) (novella) *''A Serious Man'' (1998) *'' As It Happened'' (2002) *''A Star in the West'' (1999) *''Thin-Ice Skater'' (2004)

Plays

*''The Restoration of Arnold Middleton'' (1967) *'' In Celebration'' (1969) *''The Contractor'' (1970) *''

'' (1970) *''

'' (1973) *''The Farm'' (1973) *''Cromwell'' (1973) () *''Life Class'' (1974) *''Mother's Day'' (1977) *''Early Days'' (1980) *''Sisters'' (1980) *''The March on Russia'' (1989) *''Stages'' (1992)

Poetry

*''Storey's Lives: 1951–1991'' (1992) ()

Autobiography

*''A Stinging Delight'' (Faber & Faber, 2021)

References

Sources

* Harrison, Juliet Francis ''Artistic Fictions: The Representation of the Artist Figure in Works by David Storey,

John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. After leaving Oxford Uni ...

and Tom Stoppard'' (Ph.D., Exeter). *Hutchings, William, ed. ''David Storey: A Casebook''. NY: Garland, 1992. *Hutchings, William. ''The Plays of David Storey: A Thematic Study''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1988. *Liebman, Herbert ''The Dramatic Art of David Storey: The Journey of a Playwright'', Greenwood Press. *Schafer, Stephen C. "An Overview of the Working Classes in British Feature Film from the 1960s to the 1980s: From Class Consciousness to Marginalization", ''International Labor and Working-Class History'' 59: 3–14. *''Encyclopedia of British Film'' *''Contemporary Authors''

External links

Information on Storey's plays

{{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, David 1933 births 2017 deaths Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Burials at Highgate Cemetery English male dramatists and playwrights English male novelists English screenwriters English male screenwriters People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield People from Wakefield Booker Prize winners John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers English rugby league players