David Lodge (author)
| David Lodge | |
|---|---|
| Born | David John Lodge 28 January 1935 Brockley, London, England |
| Occupation | Writer, author, literary critic |
| Nationality | British |
| Notable awards |
Hawthornden Prize 1975 |
David John Lodge CBE (born 28 January 1935) is an English author and literary critic.
Lodge was Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham until 1987, and he is best known for his novels satirising academic life, particularly the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984), and Nice Work (1988). Small World and Nice Work were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another major theme in his work is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960).
Lodge has also written several television screenplays and three stage plays. Since retiring from academia he has continued to publish works of literary criticism, which often draw on his own experience as a practising novelist and scriptwriter.
David Lodge was born in Brockley in south-east London. His family home was at 81 Millmark Grove, a quiet residential street of 1930s terraced houses running from Brockley Cross to Barriedale. His father, a violinist, worked in the orchestra pit of south London cinemas playing music to accompany silent movies. Lodge's first published novel The Picturegoers (1960) draws on his early experiences in "Brickley" (based on Brockley), and he revisits them again in a later novel, Therapy. World War II forced Lodge and his mother to evacuate to Surrey and Cornwall. He attended school at the Catholic St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath.
In 1952, he entered the University of London (University College), and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with first-class honours in 1955. He met his future wife, Mary Frances Jacob, at University College when they were 18; she was also a student there. After graduating, he spent two years in the Royal Armoured Corps as his military service. This experience became the basis for his novel Ginger You're Barmy. He then returned to London University where he earned a Master of Arts (MA) in 1959, with a thesis on "The Catholic Novel from the Oxford Movement to the Present Day". During this period, he wrote a first (unpublished) novel at the age of 18 (1953), "The Devil, the World and the Flesh".
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