A.C.H. Smith

A C H Smith
A C H Smith (portrait by Stephen Morris)
Born	(1935-10-31)31 October 1935 Kew, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Education	Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Occupation	Novelist, playwright

Anthony Charles Hockley Smith (born Anthony Charles Smith in 1935) is a British novelist and playwright from Kew. He was educated at Hampton Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. On starting his writing career, to distinguish himself from other writers of the same name he added the initial 'H', representing his grandmother's maiden name, Hockley.

Since 1960 his home has been in Bristol. From 1965–69 he was Senior Research Associate at Richard Hoggart’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University, and he has held visiting posts at the Universities of Bristol, Bournemouth, and Texas (Austin). From 1964–73 he did literary work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and later some for the National Theatre.

In 1971 Peter Brook invited him to Iran for three months to write a book about the Orghast project that Brook and Ted Hughes were undertaking. He was a director of the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 1978, 1979, and 1999. He has two daughters, Imogen and Sophie, and a son, Oliver Smith (cricketer).

Stories and poems for BBC radio, Transatlantic Review, The Listener, et al.

And a dozen shorter plays.

With wife, subject of John Boorman’s 6-part BBC docudrama The Newcomers (1964). Wrote and presented about 200 arts programmes and documentaries for HTV and BBC. Six plays televised. Three screenplays.