Barstow, Stan

▪ British novelist

byname of  Stanley Barstow  

born June 28, 1928, Horbury, Yorkshire, Eng.

      English novelist who achieved success with his first book, A Kind of Loving (1960; filmed 1962; stage play 1970).

      Barstow grew up in a working-class environment and worked in the engineering industry until 1962. He was among a group of young British writers (including Alan Sillitoe (Sillitoe, Alan), John Braine (Braine, John), and others) who achieved immediate success in the 1950s and '60s with their unsentimental depiction of working-class life. His later novels include Joby (1964), The Watchers on the Shore (1966), A Raging Calm (1968), A Season with Eros (1971), The Right True End (1976), A Brother's Tale (1980), and Just You Wait and See (1986). He has also written short stories and adapted several stories and novels for radio and television. An autobiography, In My Own Good Time, appeared in 2001.

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