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{{For|the occult writer|Francis X. King}} {{For|the occult writer|Francis X. King}}
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'''Francis Henry King''', ] (4 March 1923{{spaced ndash}}3 July 2011)<ref name="Trewin&Fryer">Ion Trewin and Jonathan Fryer ''The Guardian'', 3 July 2011</ref> was a British novelist, poet and short story writer. He worked for the British Council for 25 years, with positions in Europe and Japan. For 25 years he was a chief book reviewer for the ''Sunday Telegraph,'' and for 10 years its theatre critic.<ref>, ''The Daily Telegraph,'' 4 July 2011, accessed 4 April 2012</ref> '''Francis Henry King''', ] (4 March 1923{{spaced ndash}}3 July 2011)<ref name="Trewin&Fryer">Ion Trewin and Jonathan Fryer ''The Guardian'', 3 July 2011</ref> was a British novelist, poet and short story writer. He worked for the British Council for 25 years, with positions in Europe and Japan. For 25 years he was a chief book reviewer for the ''Sunday Telegraph,'' and for 10 years its theatre critic.<ref>, ''The Daily Telegraph,'' 4 July 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2012</ref>


==Early life and Council career== ==Early life and Council career==

Revision as of 06:26, 15 October 2012

For the occult writer, see Francis X. King.

Francis Henry King, CBE (4 March 1923 – 3 July 2011) was a British novelist, poet and short story writer. He worked for the British Council for 25 years, with positions in Europe and Japan. For 25 years he was a chief book reviewer for the Sunday Telegraph, and for 10 years its theatre critic.

Early life and Council career

He was born on 4 March 1923 in Adelboden, Switzerland to a father in the civil service, brought up in India and sent back to England when his father was dying. As a boy, he was shunted around among aunts and uncles.

He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land.

After completing his degree in 1949, he worked for the British Council. His positions with them took him to Italy, Salonika and finally Kyoto. In 1964 he resigned to write full time, by when he had already published nine novels, as well as poetry and a memoir.

Literary career

He won the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. His 1956 book The Firewalkers was published pseudonymously under the name Frank Cauldwell.

A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.

Personal life

King came out as homosexual in the 1970s. After his long-term partner had died from AIDS in 1988, he described their relationship in Yesterday Came Suddenly (1993). King suffered a stroke in 2005.

Death

Francis King died on 3 July 2011 at the age of 88.

Works

  • To the Dark Tower (1946) novel
  • Never Again (1948) novel
  • An Air That Kills (1948) novel
  • The Dividing Stream (1951) novel, 1952 Somerset Maugham Award
  • Rod of Incantation (1952) poems
  • The Dark Glasses (1954) novel
  • The Firewalkers: a Memoir (1956) (wrote under the name Frank Cauldwell)
  • The Man on the Rock (1957) novel
  • The Widow (1957) novel
  • The Custom House (1961) novel
  • The Japanese Umbrella and Other Stories (1964) – short stories
  • The Last Pleasure Gardens (1965)
  • The Waves Behind the Boat (1967) novel
  • Robert de Montesquiou by Philippe Julian (1967) – translator, along with John Haylock
  • The Brighton Belle and other stories (1968)
  • The Domestic Animal (1970) novel
  • Flights (1973)
  • A Game of Patience (1974)
  • The Needle (1975)
  • E.M. Forster and his World (1978) – a biography of the author of A Passage to India and Howards End
  • Act of Darkness (1983)
  • Voices in an Empty Room (1984)
  • Visiting Cards (1990)
  • Punishments (1989)
  • The Ant Colony (1992)
  • Yesterday Came Suddenly (1993) – autobiography
  • The Nick of Time (2002) novel
  • The Sunlight on the Garden (2006) – short stories
  • With My Little Eye (2007) novel

References

  1. ^ Ion Trewin and Jonathan Fryer Obituary: Francis King, The Guardian, 3 July 2011
  2. "Obituary of Francis King", The Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2012
  3. "Francis King, obit", The Telegraph

External links

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