Ian McEwan

**Ian Russell McEwan** <small>CH</small>, <small>CBE</small>, <small>FRSA</small>, <small>FRSL</small> (born 21 June 1948), is an English novelist (who is also called "Ian Macabre" because of the type of his early work).

## Biography

McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England and spent much of his childhood in the Far East, Germany and North Africa where his father, an officer in the army, was posted. He was educated at the University of Sussex and the University of East Anglia, where he was the first graduate of Malcolm Bradbury's pioneering creative writing course.

He has been married twice. His second wife, Annalena McAfee, is the editor of the Guardian's Review section.

In March and April 2004, just months after the British government had invited him to a dinner with First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, McEwan was denied entry into the United States by the United States Department of Homeland Security for not having the proper visa for earning a living (McEwan was preparing to give a series of paid lectures). Only after several days and publicity in the British press was McEwan admitted because, as he said a customs official had told him, "We still do not want to let you in, but this is attracting a lot of unfavourable publicity."

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He was awarded a CBE in 2000.

## Works

His first published work was the collection of short stories _First Love, Last Rites_ (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976.

_The Cement Garden_ (1978) and _Black Dogs_ (1992) were his early novels.

His 1997 novel, _Enduring Love_, about a person with de Clerambault's syndrome, is regarded by many as a masterpiece, though _Atonement_ has received equally high acclaim.

In 1998, he was controversially awarded the Booker Prize for his novella, _Amsterdam_.

His 2005 novel, _Saturday_, follows an especially eventful day in the life of a neurosurgeon. Mr Henry Perowne, the main character, lives in a house on a square in central London where McEwan himself lives after relocating from Oxford.

The 2007 novel, _On Chesil Beach_, was a short novel about one couple in England and how they experience love and sexuality in the early 1960s. The novel was on the short list of possible Booker Prize winners.

His most recent novel, _Solar_, is a comedy. A fictional Nobel Prize winning physicist with a disorganized personal life is the main character.

### Novels

- _The Cement Garden_ (1978, filmed in 1993)
- _The Comfort of Strangers_ (1981, filmed in 1990)
- _The Child in Time_ (1987)
- _The Innocent_ (1989, filmed in 1993)
- _Black Dogs_ (1992)
- _Enduring Love_ (1997, filmed in 2004)
- _Amsterdam_ (1998)
- _Atonement_ (2001)
- _Saturday_ (2005)
- _On Chesil Beach_ (2007)

### Short fiction collections

- _First Love, Last Rites_ (1975)
- _In Between the Sheets_ (1978)

### Children's fiction

- _Rose Blanche_ (1985)
- _The Daydreamer_ (1994)

### Plays

- _The Imitation Game_ (1981)

### Screenplays

- _Ploughman's Lunch_ (1985)
- _Sour Sweet_ (1989)
- _The Good Son_ (1993)

### Oration

- _or Shall We Die?_ (1983)

### Introduction

- _What We Believe but Cannot Prove : Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty_, John Brockman, ed. (2005)

## Other websites

- Official website
- Ian McEwan in Guardian Books: Authors section
- Powells.com interview
- Salon.com interview
- PBS interview: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero
- 1990 audio interview  with Don Swaim at Wired For Books

## Infobox (writer)

- **birth name**: Ian Russell McEwan
- **image**: Salon du livre de Paris 2011 - Ian McEwan - 003.jpg
- **imagesize**: 200px
- **caption**: Paris, 2011
- **birth place**: Aldershot, England, United Kingdom, UK
- **occupation**: Author, screenwriter
- **nationality**: British
- **period**: 1975–present
- **genre**: Recent history
- **spouse**: Penny Allen
(m. 1982–1995, divorced)
Annalena McAfee (m. 1997–)