William Trevor, KBE

Patron:

William Trevor, novelist and short-story writer, was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork on 24 May 1928. He was educated at St Columba’s College, County Dublin, and Trinity College, Dublin. Initially, he was a sculptor and exhibited frequently in Dublin and London. His first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, was published in 1958.

His early novels include The Old Boys (1964), winner of the Hawthornden Prize; The Children of Dynmouth (1976) and Fools of Fortune (1983) both won the Whitbread Novel Award, and Felicia’s Journey (1994) won both the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Sunday Express Book of the Year awards. The Story of Lucy Gault (2002) was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

He is the acclaimed author of several collections of short stories. The Hill Bachelors (2000) won both the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories and the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction in 2001.

William Trevor was awarded an honorary CBE in 1977 for his services to literature, and was made a Companion of Literature in 1994. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary KBE. He is also a member of the Irish Academy of Letters.He was awarded the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in Irish Literature in 2008.

His works include:

Novels and novellas
A Standard of Behaviour; The Old Boys; The Boarding House;The Love Department;
Mrs Eckdorf in O’Neill’s Hotel; Miss Gomez and the Brethren; Elizabeth Alone;
The Children of Dynmouth; The Distant Past; Other People’s Worlds; Fools of Fortune;
Nights at the Alexandra; The Silence in the Garden; Two Lives; Felicia’s Journey;
Death in Summer; The Story of Lucy Gault; Love and Summer.

Short story collections
The Day We Got Drunk on Cake and Other Stories; The Ballroom of Romance and Other
Stories; Angels at the Ritz and Other Stories; Lovers of their Time; Beyond the Pale;
The Stories of William Trevor; The News from Ireland and Other Stories; Family Sins and Other Stories; Outside Ireland: Selected Stories; The Collected Stories; After Rain;
Cocktails at Doney’s; The Hill Bachelors; A Bit On the Side; Cheating At Canasta;
Bodily Secrets; Collected Stories, Volumes I & II.

Other writings
Trevor has also written several dramas, a children’s book, a couple of non-fiction books and is the editor of the Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories.