Percy Howard Newby CBE (25 June 1918 – 6 September 1997) was an English novelist and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the Booker Prize, his novel Something to Answer For having received the inaugural award in 1969.
Early life
Newby was born in Crowborough, Sussex, England, on 25 June 1918 and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School in Worcestershire, and St Paul's College of Education in Cheltenham. In October 1939, he was sent to France to serve in World War II as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. His unit was one of the last to be evacuated. Afterwards, he was sent to the Middle East and served in the Egyptian desert.
Career
Newby was released from military service in December 1942, and then taught English Literature at King Fouad University in Cairo until 1946. In 1947, John Lehmann published Newby's boys' adventure story "The Spirit of Jem" with 41-line drawings and a colour dust wrap by Keith Vaughan.
In 1969, Newby won the inaugural Booker Prize with his novel Something to Answer For.
Works
Novels
- A Journey to the Interior (1945)
- The Spirit of Jem (1947)
- Agents and Witnesses (1947)
- Mariner Dances (1948)
- The Loot Runners (1949)
- The Snow Pasture (1949)
- The Young May Moon (1950)
- A Season in England (1951)
- A Step to Silence (1952)
- The Retreat (1953)
- Picnic at Sakkara (1955), first novel in the Anglo-Egyptian comic trilogy.
- Revolution and Roses (1957), second novel in the Anglo-Egyptian comic trilogy.