'The inventor of the past'

 

“Writers of historical fiction arenot under the same obligation as historians to find evidence for the statementsthey make. For us it is sufficient if what we say can't be disproved or shownto be false.” – Barry Unsworth
Born on this date in 1930 to afamily of coal miners, Unsworth said his family “got out of that trap” when his fatherbucked tradition and became an insurance salesman.  “He saved us,” Unsworth said.   Barry started writing in his 30s and his historical novels became the gold standard in the genre.  “All my fiction starts from a feeling of uniqueperception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told.”
Three of his 17 novels were shortlisted for TheBooker Prize, and his 1992 masterpiece Sacred Hunger aboutthe English involvement in the slave trade shared the prize with MichaelOndaatje's The English Patient.
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At the time of his death in 2012 – on June 4, the same day as science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's death – he was so well entrenched inhistorical fiction that Wall Street Journalwriter Cynthia Crossen noted in a story about their deaths:  "Mr. Bradbury invented the future; Mr.Unsworth invented the past."
“Ilike the condition of being an outsider," Unsworth said.  "(Someone) just passing through.”