Mervyn Jones (27 February 1922 – 23 February 2010[1]) was a British novelist, journalist and biographer, the son of psychoanalyst Ernest Jones.[2]
Mervyn Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 February 1922 Regent's Park, London, England |
| Died | 23 February 2010 (aged 87) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Abbotsholme School |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Notable works | John and Mary, Holding On, Today The Struggle |
| Spouse | Jeanne Urquhart (1948–1990) |
| Children | Conrad Jones, Marian Jones and Jaqueline Jones |
| Relatives | Ernest Jones (father) |
Mervyn Jones wrote 29 novels (five unpublished),[3] including John and Mary (1966), the basis for the 1969 film,[4] and Holding On (1973), which was adapted for television in 1977.[5]
Jones also wrote non-fiction, reportage and biography, including a fictional biography of Joseph Stalin in 1970 and a biography of his friend Michael Foot, the former Labour Party leader, in 1994.[6] A former Communist, Jones wrote for the Daily Worker, and later the New Reasoner and Tribune; he was later assistant editor at the New Statesman.[6]
He died in 2010 at age 87.[6]
Selected works
editFiction
edit- No Time To Be Young (1952)
- The New Town (1953)
- Helen Blake (1955)
- On the Last Day (1958)
- A Set of Wives (1965)
- John and Mary (1966)
- A Survivor (1968)
- Joseph (1970)
- Mr Armitage Isn't Back Yet (1971)
- Holding On (1973; new edition by Eland in 2009)
- The Revolving Door (1973)
- Strangers (1974)
- Lord Richard's Passion (1974)
- Twilight of the Day (1975)
- The Pursuit of Happiness (1975)
- Scenes From Bourgeois Life (1976)
- Nobody's Fault (1977)
- Today The Struggle (1978)
- The Beautiful Words (1979)
- A Short Time To Live (1980)
- Two Women and Their Man (1982)
- Joanna's Luck (1984)
- Coming Home (1986)
- That Year in Paris (1988)
Non-fiction
edit- Guilty Men (1957) [with Michael Foot]
- Potbank: A Social Enquiry into Life in the Potteries (1961)
- Big Two: Life in America and Russia (1962) [aka The Antagonists]
- Two Ears of Corn – Oxfam in Action (1965) [aka In Famine's Shadow – a Private War on Hunger]
- Kingsley Martin: Portrait and Self-portrait (1969) [Ed.]
- Rhodesia: The White Judge's Burden (1972)
- Life on the Dole (1972)
- Privacy (1974)
- The Oil Rush (1976)
- Chances: An Autobiography (1987)
- A Radical Life: The Biography of Megan Lloyd George (1991)
- Michael Foot (1994)
- The Amazing Victorian: A Life of George Meredith (1999)
References
edit- ^ Geoffrey Goodman Obituary, The Guardian, 26 February 2010
- ^ Obituary The Times, 2 March 2010.
- ^ "Mervyn Jones obituary". TheGuardian.com. 25 February 2010.
- ^ "Obituary: Mervyn Jones, 1922-2010 | Tribune". www.tribunemagazine.org. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015.
- ^ "Holding on (TV Series 1977– ) – IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ a b c "Mervyn Jones". www.telegraph.co.uk. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
External links
edit- Daily Telegraph obituary, 24 February 2010 [1]
- Guardian obituary
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