Biography

He was born in London in 1935. He was educated at University College London where he took his BA and his MA. He has a doctorate from the University of Birmingham where he taught in the English Department from 1960 to 1987. He is now a full-time writer but retains the title of Honorary Professor of Modern English Literature at Birmingham.

Bibliography

Novels:
The Picturegoers (1960)
Ginger, You're Barmy (1962)
The British Museum is Falling Down (1965)
Out of the Shelter (1960)
Changing Places (1975)
How Far Can You Go? (1980)
Small World (1984)
Nice Work (1988)
Paradise News (1991)
Therapy (1996)
Home Truths (1999)

Play:
The Writing Game (produced in 1990 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre)

Essays and criticism:
Language of Fiction (1966)
The Novelist at the Crossroads (1971)
The Modes of Modern Writing (1977)
Working with Structuralism (1981)

Write On (1986)
Modern Criticism and Theory (1988)
After Bakhtin: Essays on Fiction and Criticism (1990)
The Art of Fiction (1992)
The Practice of Writing (1966)