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==Work== |
==Work== |
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===''Alive''=== |
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Read is best known for his [[non-fiction]] book ''[[Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors]]'' which documented the story of the 1972 crash of [[Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571]] in the [[Andes mountains]]. The book was adapted into the 1993 film ''[[Alive: The Miracle of the Andes]]''. |
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===Other work=== |
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Read's first notable success was his book ''Monk Dawson'' (1969), which won him a [[Hawthornden Prize]] and a [[Somerset Maugham Award]]. |
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In 1978 he wrote the book ''The Train Robbers'' about the [[Great Train Robbery (1963)]] in England in 1963 ([http://www.biblio.com/isbn/0491020635.html]). |
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In 1988 he was awarded a [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for his book, ''A Season in the West''. |
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In 2003 his authorized biography of the actor [[Alec Guinness]] was published. |
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===Themes=== |
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Read's novels are strongly influenced by his [[Catholicism|Catholic faith]]. His story focus on the religious themes of sin and redemption. Read writes in a fairly traditional, linear, style and he often uses [[Plot (narrative)|plot]] elements from popular fiction, especially the [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]], like [[espionage]], murder and [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]]. Most of his main characters are fairly unsympathetic and some of them commit horrific deeds before they finally convert to [[God]]. |
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Almost all of Read's novels are set in Europe. Many of his books show a great interest and sympathy especially for [[Germany]] - quite unusually in [[British literature]] - and for [[Eastern Europe]]an countries like [[Russia]] and [[Poland]]. In ''The Knights of the Cross'', he explicitly satirizes the expectations and [[prejudice]]s of the British readership towards the Germans. |
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==List of Works== |
==List of Works== |
Revision as of 19:00, 30 September 2007
Piers Paul Read (b. March 7 1941) is a British novelist and non-fiction writer and author.
Background
Read was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He is the son of the poet Herbert Read.
He is a devout Roman Catholic. He received his B.A. in 1961 and M.A. in 1962 from Cambridge University. In the years 1963-64, he spent a year in West Berlin on a Ford Foundation Fellowship. This inspired his second novel The Junkers (1968) and his general sympathy towards the Germans. In the years 1967-68, he spent a year in New York - an experience he used in The Professor's Daughter' (1971).
Read is a practising Catholic and Vice-President of the Catholic Writers' Guild of England and Wales. He is married and the father of four children. He lives in London.
Work
List of Works
Fiction
- Game in Heaven with Tussy Marx (1966)
- The Junkers (1968)
- Monk Dawson (1969)
- The Professor's Daughter (1971)
- The Upstart (1973)
- Polonaise (1976)
- A Married Man (1979)
- The Villa Golitsyn (1981)
- The Free Frenchman (1986)
- A Season in the West (1988)
- On the Third Day (1990)
- A Patriot in Berlin (1995)
- Knights of the Cross (1997)
- Alice in Exile (2001)
Non-fiction
- Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (1974)
- The Train Robbers (1978) (dt. Die Posträuber)
- Quo Vadis? The Subversion of the Catholic Church (1991)
- Ablaze: The Story of Chernobyl (1993)
- The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades (1999)
- Alec Guinness. The Authorised Biography (2003)
- Hell and other Destinations (Essays) (2006)
References
Literature about the Author
- Read, Piers Paul. Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series, Vol. 38, pp.353-355.
See also
- Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
- Alive: 20 Years Later
- Nando Parrado
- Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571