Ian Russell McEwan, CBE, FRSA, FRSL (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) were his first two novels, and earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre". These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1997, he published Enduring Love, which was made into a film. He won the Man Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). In 2001, he published Atonement, which was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This was followed by Saturday (2005), On Chesil Beach (2007), Solar (2010), and Sweet Tooth (2012). In 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.
The law is all about drawing clear lines. Life is not like that.
2
Some people write to me and say, 'You only ever wrote one good book'. And others say, 'I just love what you've been doing since "Atonement". I'm pleased that there isn't a consensus. But there are some pale young men who think "Comfort of Strangers" is the one.
3
[on writing 'The Children Act' , about a marriage in crisis] I hung around the courts and spent time with judges. The family court seems neglected in fiction. The judgments I was reading - about the end of love, and the separation of goods and money, and the destinies of children and medical ethics - so many of them are things that fiction routinely deals with.
4
[on writing the libretto for a new opera ('For You': 2008)] What I've discovered and really confirmed to myself is that opera really likes loud colours, and you need something bold, something savage, unpredictable, passionate. You can't really run a two-hour opera round some muted murmuring.
5
Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It's a little easier if you've got a god to forgive you.
6
I've yet to meet somebody who said, "Your stories are so revolting I couldn't read them."
7
I always used to deny this, but I guess what I'm really saying is that I was writing to shock. . . . And I dug deep and dredged up all kinds of vile things which fascinated me at the time. [about his early fiction, which is filled with blood and perversion]
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Fact
1
London, England [June 2008]
2
The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival [February 2008]
3
Ranked #19 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".
4
Recently discovered he had a long-lost older brother, Dave Sharp.
5
His first collection of stories, 'First Love Last Rites' (1975), won the Somerset Maugham Award.
6
Son of soldier David McEwan, he spent much of his childhood abroad, stationed in such as outposts as Singapore and Libya.
7
Studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia with intructors Malcolm Bradbury and 'Angus Wilson', earning an M.A. in 1971.
8
He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honors List for his services to Literature.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
On Chesil Beach
2017
novel / screenplay filming
The Children Act
post-production
Atonement
2007
novel
Butterflies
2005/I
Short story
Enduring Love
2004
novel
Foglie di cemento
2003
Short short story
Solid Geometry
2002
TV Short short story
First Love, Last Rites
1997
short story
The Good Son
1993
written by
The Innocent
1993
novel / screenplay
Rozmowa z czlowiekiem z szafy
1993
story
The Cement Garden
1993
novel
The Comfort of Strangers
1990
novel
Soursweet
1988
writer
Schmetterlinge
1988
story
Last Day of Summer
1984
TV Movie screenplay / story
The Ploughman's Lunch
1983
written by
Play for Today
1980
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Second City Firsts
1976
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Atonement
2007
executive producer
Enduring Love
2004
associate producer
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
La grande librairie
2008-2015
TV Series
Himself
Overheard
2014
TV Series
Himself - Interviewee
Newsnight
2014
TV Series
Himself
The Unbelievers
2013
Documentary
Himself
Skavlan
2013
TV Series
Himself - Guest
Charlie Rose
1999-2012
TV Series
Himself - Guest
Página 2
2011
TV Series
Himself
Gomorron
2010
TV Series
Himself - Guest
The South Bank Show Revisited
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself
Ànima
2009
TV Series
Himself
Bringing the Past to Life: The Making of 'Atonement'
$16 Million
