John Antony Spurling[1] (born 17 July 1936) is a Kenyan-English playwright and author who has written thirty-five plays and seven books. Spurling won the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for The Ten Thousand Things. Spurling worked in various other capacities between the 1960s and 1990s, including announcing for BBC Radio from 1963 to 1966, reviewing books and art for BBC Radio and many magazines and newspapers, and as principal art critic for the New Statesman from 1976 to 1988.
After finishing his secondary education at Marlborough College, Spurling was called up for National Service and commissioned as a second lieutenant[4] in the Royal Artillery from 1955 to 1957.[7] His regiment was stationed in West Germany. Having taken his degree at Oxford, he served as a plebiscite officer in Southern Cameroons from 1960 to 1961.[5] Spurling was a BBC Radio announcer from 1963 to 1966 and reviewed books and radio programs for The Spectator from 1966 to 1970.[7] In 1976, he became art critic for the New Statesman and held the position until 1988.[8]
Spurling began his career as a playwright at the age of twelve when he first encountered Shakespeare’s plays at the Dragon School and wrote a farcical piece, performed by his fellow-pupils, about Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain. In 1956 he wrote and directed a Christmas pantomime for his regiment in Germany and in 1958 his Pirandellian comedy Char. was performed by the student ETC (Experimental Theatre Company) at the Oxford Playhouse. Following a Sunday night performance of his play Gerald by professional actors directed by Michael Denison at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Spurling was given a two-year grant by a group of West End Managers and wrote MacRune’s Guevara, about the recently dead Che Guevara, which was performed in 1969 by the National Theatre and subsequently in many countries around the world. The diverse subjects of his later plays included Ovid, and Chairman Mao[9] and the Aztecs all in one play; the discovery of America; the British Empire; Racine; the Greek philosopher Hypatia, murdered by Christian monks; and an Arabian Nights version of Saddam Hussein. He also wrote plays for television and radio. Spurling published his first novel in 1989 and by 2015 his written works totalled thirty-five plays (a few still unperformed), four novels, two books of literary criticism and a book of Greek myths.[7][6]
In 1961 Spurling married writer Susan Hilary Forrest, better known as Hilary Spurling.[1][12][13] The Spurlings have three children (Amy, Nathaniel, and Gilbert) and live in London, England.[7]
Works
Stage Plays (first productions)
MacRune’s Guevara, National Theatre, London, 1969, published by Calder & Boyars, 1969
Romance, (music and lyrics by Charles Ross) Duke of York’s Theatre, London, 1971
In the Heart of the British Museum, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 1971, published by Calder & Boyars, 1972
Shades of Heathcliff, Lucky’s, Sheffield, 1971, published by Marion Boyars, 1975
Peace in our Time, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 1972
McGonagall and the Murderer, Pool Theatre, Edinburgh, 1974
On a Clear Day You Can See Marlowe, Cockpit Theatre, London, 1974
^ abcdeKirkpatrick, Kirk; Vinson, James, eds. (1988). "Spurling, John". Contemporary Dramatists (Fourth ed.). Chicago and London: St. James Press. p. 500. ISBN0912289627.
^Stringer, Jenny, ed. (1996). "Spurling, John". The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 638. ISBN0192122711.
^Thorner, Robin (7 August 1971). "Stretching the romantic agony". The Guardian. p. 8.
^"John Spurling". The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 20 February 2020.