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(1926– ),
novelist and art critic, born in London and educated at the Chelsea College of Art and Central School of Art. He became well known as a broadcaster and journalist holding Marxist views. His novels include A Painter of Our Time (1958), The Foot of Clive (1962), Corker's Freedom (1964), G (1972, Booker Prize), To the Wedding (1995), and Here Is Where We Meet (2005). Works of non‐fiction include A Fortunate Man (1967); a trilogy comprising Pig Earth (1979), a study in stories, poems, and narrative of the plight of the French peasant facing the threat of migrant industrialized labour, Once in Europa (1987, stories), and Lilac and Flag (1990); and essays and poems in Keeping a Rendezvous (1992). One of his most influential texts has been Ways of Seeing (1972), based on a BBC TV series, which explores painting and commercial imagery in a context of cultural capitalism: it drew on and helped to popularize the concepts of W. Benjamin.
Subjects: literature.