Edwin Stuart Gomer Evans (20 October 1934 – 12 December 1994) was a

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

-born Welsh

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

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, raised in

Ystalyfera Ystalyfera is a former industrial village and community in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about northeast of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a r ...

in Glamorgan. He read English at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

, before serving in the Royal Navy. He then taught at Brunel College of Advanced Technology. From the mid-1960s, he was employed by

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, London, to produce programmes for the Schools Broadcasting Department. His novels include ''Meritocrats'' (1974), ''The Gardens of the Casino'' (1976), ''The Caves of Alienation'' (1977), and the ''Windmill Hill Sequence'' of five novels which included ''Centres of Ritual'', ''Occupational Debris'', ''Temporary Hearths'', ''Houses on the Site'', and ''Seasonal Tribal Feasts''. Prior to concentrating on novel writing, Evans had won the

Newdigate Prize Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, more commonly the Newdigate Prize, is awarded by the University of Oxford for the Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate student. It was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate (1719–1 ...

in 1955 for his poem "Elegy for a Dead Clown". He also published two collections of poetry, ''Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads'' (1972) and ''The Function of the Fool'' (1997). For his thrillers co-written with Kay Evans, he used the pseudonym Hugh Tracy.

Norman Shrapnel Norman Shrapnel (5 October 1912 – 1 February 2004) was an English journalist, author, and parliamentary correspondent. Biography Shrapnel was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and was educated at The King's School, Grantham. In 1947, after war s ...

, in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', wrote of Evans' debut novel ''Meritocrats'', that "I can scarcely recall a more ambitious first novel ... and few more interesting ones". Philip Howard, writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', described Evans as "my candidate for the

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

, I dare not say the

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...

, of our generation." Peter Lewis, in ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', described Evans' ''Windmill Hill Sequence'' as "probably the most ambitious fictional work in progress by a British writer". Until the late 2000s much of his work was out of print, but two of his poems were included in the anthology ''Poetry 1900–2000'', published by the Library of Wales. The Library of Wales has also re-published his novel ''The Caves of Alienation'', described by Anthony Brockway as "One of the most ambitious Welsh novels of the twentieth century". This is his most widely held book; according to

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, it is held in 151 libraries. Evans was married to Kathleen Bridget Snelling, née Treacy (1932–1993), her second marriage."Kathleen Treacy"

MyHeritage MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and Genealogy software, software products and services, introduced by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse thro ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Stuart 1934 births 1994 deaths Writers from Swansea Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford 20th-century Welsh novelists 20th-century Welsh poets Academics of Brunel University London