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The Barbary Light
As a boy Oscar Hanner tried to run away to Africa, only to end up in Cardiff Docks. Nearly forty years later, as an accountant employed to investigate failing companies, he again feels the need to boldly assert himself, in both his professional and private life. To embezzle part of the funds of the Silent Bottling Company is half of the plan, to make Alex his mistress, the other. But when Sybil, his wife, brings Alex home to live with them it is clear that this particular menage a trois will never work; and the stolen money becomes, in the end, a source of not so much guilt, as embarrassment.
- GenresFiction
286 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
4 people want to read
About the author
P.H. Newby
32 books22 followersPercy 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
P.H. Newby, known as Howard Newby, was born in Crowborough, Sussex 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.
From 1949 to 1978 he was employed by the BBC, beginning as a radio producer and going on to become successively Controller of the Third Programme and Radio Three, Director of Programmes (Radio), and finally Managing Director, BBC Radio.
His first novel, A Journey into the Interior, was published in 1946. He then returned to England to write. In the same year he was given an Atlantic Award in literature, and two years thence he received the Somerset Maugham Prize.
He was awarded a CBE for his work as Managing Director of BBC Radio.
Author, friend and colleague Anthony Thwaite in his obituary states: "P. H. Newby was one of the best English novelists of the second half of the century."
Early life
P.H. Newby, known as Howard Newby, was born in Crowborough, Sussex 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.
From 1949 to 1978 he was employed by the BBC, beginning as a radio producer and going on to become successively Controller of the Third Programme and Radio Three, Director of Programmes (Radio), and finally Managing Director, BBC Radio.
His first novel, A Journey into the Interior, was published in 1946. He then returned to England to write. In the same year he was given an Atlantic Award in literature, and two years thence he received the Somerset Maugham Prize.
He was awarded a CBE for his work as Managing Director of BBC Radio.
Author, friend and colleague Anthony Thwaite in his obituary states: "P. H. Newby was one of the best English novelists of the second half of the century."
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