Paul Sayer
{{Short description|English author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
Paul Sayer (born 4 October 1955,[http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/s/14491/Paul%20Anthony+SAYER.aspx Paul Sayer, Esq Authorised Biography – Debrett’s People of Today, Paul Sayer, Esq Profile] Retrieved 2013-01-06. South Milford, near Leeds) is an English author. His first novel, The Comforts of Madness won the 1988 Whitbread Award for both Best First Novel, and Book of the Year.[http://www.costabookawards.com/media/5508/past_winners_complete_list.pdf past_winners_complete_list.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028174309/http://www.costabookawards.com/media/5508/past_winners_complete_list.pdf |date=28 October 2012 }} Retrieved 2013-01-06.
Life
Born in South Milford near Leeds, Sayer has lived in and around York since the age of 18. He was working as a psychiatric nurse in Clifton Hospital in York whilst writing his first prizewinning novel.[http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/books/8131984.___I_was_getting_rejections_by__the_pile____no_one__wanted_me_much___/ ‘I was getting rejections by the pile... no one wanted me much’ (From York Press)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507121600/http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/books/8131984.___I_was_getting_rejections_by__the_pile____no_one__wanted_me_much___/ |date=7 May 2010 }} Retrieved 2013-01-06. Drawing on his own experiences, it is a first-person account of a speechless, catatonic patient in a hospital therapy unit.{{cn|date=August 2022}} Over the next few years, with his work appearing in ten languages, he went on to write five further novels, including the Booker Prize 'long-listed' 'The Absolution Game'. But the last of these, Men in Rage, published in 1999 did not sell well and as he explains to The Press (York), he became disillusioned and gave up writing, eventually ending up working as a cleaner in a school. There, he was inspired to write again, producing a novel about adolescence, Like So Totally, which was published in 2010 with help from The Wingate Foundation.[http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/profile.cfm?fellow=233&menu=2 The Royal Literary Fund] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716232010/http://www.rlf.org.uk/FELLOWSHIPSCHEME/profile.cfm?fellow=233&menu=2 |date=16 July 2010 }} Retrieved 2013-01-06. He now lives in Haxby. Following a long-standing renal complaint, he received a kidney transplant in 2011, and in 2014 his novel about the highwayman Dick Turpin, The True Adventures of Richard Turpin, was published. He has also worked as a fellow for the Royal Literary Fund at Leeds and York Universities.
Bibliography
- The Comforts of Madness (1988)
- Howling at the Moon (1990)
- The Absolution Game (1992)
- The Storm-bringer (1994)
- The God Child (1996)
- Men in Rage (1998)
- Like So Totally (2010)
- The True Adventures of Richard Turpin (2014)
- The Perils of Sanity (2021)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://pulppusher.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/pushed-for-answers-paul-sayer.html Pulp Pusher: PUSHED FOR ANSWERS: Paul Sayer]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayer, Paul}}
Category:20th-century English novelists
Category:People from Selby District
Category:Writers from North Yorkshire
Category:Costa Book Award winners
Category:English male novelists
Category:20th-century English male writers