Ian McEwan

July 18, 2011

Ian McEwan is a well known British author, that was born on June 21, 1948 from David and Rose McEwan. Aldershot, England is his hometown, but his father was in the army, so he had to move a lot as a child. His father used to tell him stories of war life during World War II. This is probably how he got most of his background information for his World War II stories. His father abused Rose and was an alcoholic, and his Mother had vascular dementia. It wasn't until 2002, that he realized he had a brother given up for adoption during the times of World War II. His name was David Sharpe and is 6 years older than Ian McEwan. In 1959 Ian attended Woolverstone Hall Boarding School in England. He attended Sussex University for college to study English. After he went to the University of East Anglia and joined a creative writing class under Malcolm Bradbury. His first story was "Conversation With a Cupboardman." In 1975 he published his first collection of short stories called "First Love, Last Rites". This collection won the Somerset Maugham Award, a British literary prize given to the best writer according to the Society of Authors. His second collection of short stories was "In Between the Sheets". He was asked in 1978 to write a play for BBC, but the play was banned due to sexual subject matter. His first published novel he ever wrote was The Cement Garden. He married Penny Allen and has two sons, but they divorced shortly due to his fame in Britain. Peggy fled to France with her new boyfriend, Ismay Tremain, with her sons, but she was later ordered to return to Britain. McEwan married Annalena McAfee later. She was the editor of The Guardian. He got the nickname "Ian MacAbre" because his first couple of stories were about sex, death, and violence. Some of Ian McEwan's famous novels are "The Child in Time", "Enduring Love", "Amsterdam", and "Atonement." He has written 10 novels total, and two short story collections. His most recent story is "On the Chesil Beach" which was written in 2007. In 2008 he wrote an opera called "For You", and a children's book called "The Daydreamer". He won the most prestigious literary award, Man Booker Prize. He is considered on of England's best novelists and is honored for his writing style and dark stories (Brennan).
     Ian McEwan is an atheist, and believes that religion corrupts people's ways of thinking and that they misinterpret what their religion says. He is also against terrorism, After the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Ian McEwan wrote many essays on the attack on terrorism. Ian McEwan's inspiration is Kafka.
    "Atonement" had had many controversies. Ian McEwan has been accused of plagiarizing Lucilla Andrews' "No Time for Romance". Many authors like Thomas Pynchon defend Ian McEwan and claim he is not plagiarizing Andrew's autobiography. McEwan did admit to using the book for research. "On Chesil Beach" was also considered for plagiarizing Claire Henderson-Davis book, "After the Church". The most notable comparison of the two was the central characters name-Florence. Which is also Claires' mother's name(McEwan).

                                                       Works Cited

     Brennan, Carol. "Ian McEwan." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, 2011. Web. 18 Jul 2011. http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2004-Ko-Pr/McEwan-Ian.html.

    McEwan, Ian. "Home." IanMcEwan.com. Ian McEwan Website, 27 May 2011. Web. 18 Jul 2011. http://www.ianmcewan.com/.

   "Author Profiles: Ian McEwan - General Fiction." BooksOnline.co.uk. SplashWeb, 2010. Web. 18 Jul 2011. http://www.booksonline.co.uk/authors/ianmcewan.html.