William Trevor

Dubbed the best short-story writer of his generation, Irish author and playwright William Trevor’s work became an iconic portrait of Anglo-Irish politics and society in the latter half of the twentieth century. Born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland he became a copywriter before publishing his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour in 1958. An extraordinarily prolific writer, Trevor also adapted many of his works for stage, television and radio. His best-known works include: The Story of Lucy Gault, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, Fools of Fortune, Felicia’s Journey, The Hill Bachelors, which won both the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories, and the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction and his final novel, Love and Summer.

Trevor was awarded an honorary CBE in 1977 for his services to literature, was made a Companion of Literature in 1994 and received a knighthood in 2002. In their obituary, the Guardian described him as a writer ‘unequalled among modern writers for the keenness and accuracy of his eye and ear’. His final work, Last Stories, was published in 2018.