LIFE WITHOUT ARMOUR - Softcover

Sillitoe, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861056524 ISBN 13: 9781861056528

Publisher: Robson Books Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

Out of print for many years, and republished in this new edition, this is the autobiography of the formative years of one of our finest writers. Alan Sillitoe has been critically acclaimed for his many novels and short stories, including the bestsellers 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' and 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'. Sillitoe's early years of council-house penury in Nottingham, followed by evacuation, life in the army, tuberculosis, his rebirth as a polemical angry young man, and the publication of his first books are told with emotion and dexterity. The strong sense of place, whether the Malayan jungle or seedy post-war England, is vivid and enduring, and the story of his life is told in a masterful and poignant yet unsentimental prose. Sillitoe was described by the 'Observer' as a 'master storyteller', and this is the evocative and memorable telling of the physical and mental coming of age of one of our finest and most enduring authors.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"A marvellous escape story. Throughout the book, Sillitoe is in a state of constant excitement and impatience for life to begin"
NEW STATESMAN & SOCIETY

"A modest, unassuming and decent book, best where it tells self-mockingly of Sillitoe's early literary efforts but chilling also in its brief account of his childhood."
ROBERT NYE, 'Scotsman Weekender'

"Few writers have come quite so far on such uncompromising fuel. An absorbing book, not only for its portrait of a pre-Welfare State slum childhood, but for its angle on the position of working class writers."
D J TAYLOR, 'Independent Weekend'

"Sillitoe's autobiography is the more impressive for being told in simple, almost biblical voice: the voice he was in search of all those years, trimmed to the essence and peculiarly his own.”
OBSERVER

"A cheery story, something rare in any sort of biographical writing nowadays."
SUNDAY TIMES

"'Life Without Armour' is indeed an extraordinary book."
MAIL ON SUNDAY

About the Author:

Alan Sillitoe was born in 1928. He became a bestselling writer through the publication in 1958 of his famous novel 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', which was made into a film starring Albert Finney. This was followed a year later by the publication of his classic short story 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner', which won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature and was also made into a major film. Alan Sillitoe has published many novels and short stories and several volumes of poetry. Also published by Robson Books are: 'New and Collected Stories' (1 86105 635 4) and 'A Flight of Arrows' (1 86105 634 6). Alan lives in London, W11.

About this edition

• Publisher: Robson Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1861056524
• ISBN 13: 9781861056528
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288