Carey Harrison (born 19 February 1944) is an English novelist and dramatist.

Early years and education

Harrison was born in London to actor

Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play '' French Without Tears'', in what ...

and actress

Lilli Palmer Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...

, and raised in Los Angeles and New York, where he attended the Lycée Français. Subsequently, in Britain, he attended Sunningdale School,

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (sc ...

, and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes f ...

Career

His first play, ''Dante Kaputt,'' was staged at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, in 1966. Subsequent plays were premiered at the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and the Stables Theatre Club in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, where Harrison was Resident Playwright from 1969 to 1970. His drama output for radio and television includes numerous award-winning plays, among them are ''Hitler in Therapy'' and ''A Cook's Tour of Communism.'' His recent work'','' ''A Cook's Tour of Communism,'' was broadcast by the BBC World Service in 2008. His most recent radio drama, ''Breakfast With Stalin'', was premiered in 2010 by Westdeutscher Rundfunk Koeln in Germany, where 16 of Harrison's plays have been broadcast in translation. In 2009, a new stage play, ''Scenes From a Misunderstanding,'' a comedy about the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, was premiered at the Jewish Theatre Festival in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

, and subsequently re-mounted at the Byrdcliffe Theater in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 200 ...

, along with ''Bad Boy'', a companion piece written for the New York cast. A subsequent play, ''Magus'', was staged by The Woodstock Players in June 2010, and another, ''Midget in a Catsuit Reciting Spinoza'', in June 2011. His next play, ''Hedgerow Specimen'', was staged by The Woodstock Players in June 2012. Three new plays for the Woodstock Players, ''I Won't Bite You: an Interview with the Notorious Monster, Dorothea Farber'', and ''Rex & Rex,'' were premiered in repertoire in June and July 2013. 17 hours of Harrison's work have been seen on ''

Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaim ...

'', including the miniseries ''

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

''. He is the author of 40 stage plays and 16 novels, most notably ''Richard's Feet'', published by

Henry Holt and Company Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

in the US and by Heinemann in Britain, winner of the

Encore Award The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel was first awarded in 1990. It is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second novels, often neglecte ...

from the UK

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 protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and as ...

. Harrison's most recent novels, ''Justice,'' and ''Who Was That Lady?'' have been acclaimed by readers, and both reached no.1 on the Amazon Contemporary Fiction downloads list. His latest, ''Dog's Mercury'', was published on September 18, 2015. Harrison has received numerous grants from the UK Arts Council, and his prizes include

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academ ...

, the

Giles Cooper Award The Giles Cooper Awards were honours given to plays written for BBC Radio. Sponsored by the BBC and Methuen Drama, the awards were specifically focused on the script of the best radio drama produced in the past year. Five or six winners were chose ...

, the Prix Marulic, the

Writers' Guild of Great Britain The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG). History The ...

Award for Best Play, the

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...

Silver Award and the Best Play award from the Berlin Akademie der Kuenste, as well as two nominations (2005 and 2007) for the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors ar ...

for Journalism. His work has been translated into thirteen languages. His output includes published translations from French, Italian, German and Spanish authors, and performed translations from the works of Pirandello, Goldoni, Feydeau, and Gert Hofmann. From 2005-11 he contributed a monthly essay on linguistic trends in '' The Vocabula Review'', and since November 2011, a column on fiction-writing in
''Roll Magazine Online''
'. His essays have appeared in magazines as diverse as '' New Politics'': a journal of socialist thought, and '' Chronicles'': a paleoconservative magazine of American culture. He has also been a book reviewer for numerous newspapers and journals including '' The San Francisco Chronicle'', the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', and ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...

''.

Activism

Harrison was one of the London Recruits, a group of young people recruited by the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) in the 1960s and 1970s to smuggle ANC and

SACP The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...

literature into South Africa after the ANC had been decimated by the

Rivonia trial The Rivonia Trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life at the Palace of Justice ...

s which ran from October 9, 1963 to June 12, 1964.

Personal life

Harrison is the half-brother of actor and singer

Noel Harrison Noel John Christopher Harrison (29 January 1934 – 19 October 2013) was an English actor and singer who had a hit singing " The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, and was a member of the British Olympic skiing team in the 1950s. He was the son ...

. His first wife was

Mary Chamberlain Mary Chamberlain (born 3 September 1947) is a British novelist and historian. She has been largely collected by libraries worldwide. Early life Chamberlain was born 3 September 1947 in South London, and holds degrees from the University of Edi ...

.Mary Chamberlain
"My secret war against Apartheid"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', 8 April 2015. Harrison now lives in upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

with his wife, the artist Claire Lamb; he has four children, Rosie (Laurence), Chiara, Faith, and Sam, and one stepdaughter, Zoe Lambe. He is a Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...

Notable works

Novels

*''Freud'' (1984) *''Richard's Feet'' (1990) *''Cley'' (1991) *''Egon'' (1993) *''Dog's Mercury'' (2005) *''Who Was That Lady?'' (2005) *''Justice'' (2005) *''Personal Assistant'' (2006) *''Clear To Kill'' (2006) *''As An Unperfect Actor on the Stage'' (2006)

Plays

*''Dante Kaputt!'' (1966) *''Twenty-Six Efforts at Pornography'' (1968) *''Servant of Two Masters'' (from Goldoni) (1978) *''In a Cottage Hospital'' (1969) *''Wedding Night'' (from Gert Hoffmann) (1969) *''Lovers'' (1970) *''Shakespeare Farewell'' (1970) *''The Bequest'' (1971) *''Manoeuvres'' (with Jeremy Paul) (1974) *''Madcap'' (from Pirandello) (1976) *''I Never Killed My German'' (1979) *''A Short Walk to the Stars'' (with Jeremy Paul) (1979) *''Visitors'' (with Jeremy Paul) (1980) *''A Night on the Tor'' (1980) *''A Suffolk Trilogy: 3 Plays for Radio'' (1982) *''Who's Playing God?'' (1983) *''I Killed Jacques Brel'' (1984) *''From the Lion Rock & the Sea Voyage Trilogy: Plays for Radio'' (1989) *''Mr Pope's Toilet'' (1990) *''The Water-Cure'' (1991) *''Newton In Love'' (1992) *''Last Thoughts Upon St. Paules'' (1993) *''Self-Portrait With Dog'' (1993) *''A Walk in the Bois'' (1993) *''The Empress Wu, The Concubine Wang'' (1994) *''St. Agnes' Eve'' (1995) *''For A Son'' (1995) *''A Call From The Dead'' (1995) *''The Psychiatrist's Tale'' (1996) *''East of the Sun'' (2000) *''Richard's Feet'' (2003) *''Hitler in Therapy'' (2005) *''A Cook's Tour of Communism'' (2008) *''Breakfast With Stalin'' (2008) *''Scenes From a Misunderstanding'' (2009) *''Bad Boy'' (2009) *''Magus'' (2010) *''Midget In A Catsuit Reciting Spinoza'' (2011) *''Hedgerow Specimen'' (2012) *''Rex & Rex'' (2012) *''I Won't Bite You: an Interview with the Notorious Monster, Dorothea Farber'' (2012)

Screenplays

*''The Sea Change'' (1965) *''Sabbatical'' (1968) *''

The Jensen Code The Jensen Code is a UK children's television sci-fi thriller series. Produced in colour by Associated Television (ATV) in 13 installments, it originally aired weekly on the ITV network between 28 February 1973 and 23 May 1973. It was writt ...

'' (1973) *''The Godson'' (1981) *''Imaginary Friends'' (1981) *''

'' (1984) *''Jumping The Queue'' (1984) *''I Never Killed My German'' (1986) *''French Cricket'' (with Jeremy Paul) (1986) *''William'' (1987) *''Cley'' (1988) *''Borgia'' (1990) *''Egon'' (1995) *''Breaking Up (Is Hard To Do)'' (2007) *''The Stand-In'' (with John M. Keller) (2008)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Carey 1944 births Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Brooklyn College faculty 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists English dramatists and playwrights Living people People educated at Harrow School People educated at Sunningdale School Writers from London English opera librettists English male novelists British male dramatists and playwrights English people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers