| English writer and screenwriter Date of Birth: 21.06.1948 Country: Great Britain |
Ian McEwan, an English writer and screenwriter, was born in Aldershot, Hampshire in 1948. His father, a Scottish man, had a military career and rose to the rank of Major. During his childhood, Ian spent most of his time in Singapore, Germany, North Africa, and Libya, where his father was stationed. The family returned to England when Ian was 12 years old. He attended Woolverstone Hall School and obtained a degree in English Literature from the University of Sussex in 1970. He was one of the first graduates of Malcolm Bradbury's creative writing course at the University of East Anglia.
After publishing his first collection of short stories, "First Love, Last Rites" in 1975, McEwan won the Somerset Maugham Award a year later. In 1979, his play "Solid Geometry" faced controversy when the BBC suspended its production due to its potentially indecent content. The protagonist of the play stored a chemically preserved penis in a bank.
McEwan gained recognition for his early novels, "The Cement Garden" and "The Comfort of Strangers," earning him the nickname "Ian Macabre." He followed these with three novels that achieved some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1997, his novel "Enduring Love" was adapted into a film, and he received the Man Booker Prize in 1998 for his novel "Amsterdam." In 2001, his postmodern novel "Atonement" was turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. McEwan has also written novels such as "Saturday," "On Chesil Beach," "Solar," and "Sweet Tooth." In 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.
In 2006, McEwan was accused of plagiarism when part of his novel "Atonement" closely resembled events from Lucilla Andrews' memoir, "No Time for Romance." McEwan admitted using Andrews' memoir as a source but included a brief acknowledgment in his novel. This incident mirrored previous controversies surrounding his debut novel, "The Cement Garden," which critics claimed shared similarities with Julian Gloag's "Our Mother's House." McEwan denied ever encountering Gloag's novel and later expressed remorse in The Guardian after Gloag's death.
Ian McEwan has been married twice. His 13-year marriage to spiritual healer and therapist Penny Allen ended in divorce in 1995, with Allen losing custody of their two sons. Allen once even abducted their 13-year-old son in protest against the court's decision. His second wife, Annalena McAfee, was an editor at The Guardian. In 2002, McEwan discovered he had an older brother named David Sharp, who was given up for adoption during World War II. Their mother was married to another man when she had an affair and gave birth to David. To hide the infidelity, she relinquished David for adoption. After her husband's death, she married her lover.
Overall, Ian McEwan's career has been marked by his notable novels, critical acclaim, and occasional controversies, solidifying his place as one of Britain's outstanding writers.