John Spurling (author)


John Antony Spurling is a Kenyan-English playwright and author who has written thirty plays and four books. Spurling won the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for The Ten Thousand Things. Spurling worked in various other capacities between the 1960s and 1980s, including announcing for BBC Radio from 1963 to 1966 and critiquing art for the New Statesman from 1976 to 1988.

Early life and education

On 17 July 1936, Spurling was born in Kisumu, Kenya, to Antony Cuthbert Spurling, QC, resident magistrate and Crown Counsel at Kisumu and Nairobi, later Solicitor-General of Trinidad, and Attorney-General of Gambia and of Sierra Leone, and Elizabeth Frances, daughter of J. C. Stobart. After growing up in Nairobi, Spurling left Kenya for England when he was ten; he was educated at the Dragon School, in Oxford. For his post-secondary education, Spurling studied at Marlborough College during the 1950s before completing a Bachelor of Arts from St John's College, Oxford in 1960.

Career

While completing his education, Spurling served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery from 1955 to 1957. Upon completing his schooling, he served as a referendum officer in Southern Cameroons from 1960 to 1961. Spurling was a BBC Radio announcer from 1963 to 1966 and reviewed books and radio programs for The Spectator from 1966 to 1970. In 1976, Spurling became an art critic for the New Statesman and held the position until 1988.
Spurling began his career as a playwright at the age of twelve when he wrote about Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain. His plays became stage productions during the 1960s and 1970s with plays about Che Guevara, Ovid, and Chairman Mao. In the 1970s, Spurling started adapting plays for television and radio. By 2015, Spurling's written works totalled thirty plays and four books.

Awards and honours

In 2010, Spurling became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2015, Spurling was awarded the Walter Scott Prize for his book The Ten Thousand Things.

Personal life

In 1961 Spurling married writer Hilary, daughter of circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest; they have three children.