Jan Needle: Difference between revisions

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(Bio and work of British author Jan NEEDLE)
 
imported>Thomas Fontanari
m (Jan needle moved to Jan Needle)

Revision as of 05:16, 19 July 2007

Jan Needle (*1943) is a British author, who, as he says on his website, does "... a bit of everything ...". Needle's work includes fiction for children (e.g. My Mate Shofiq), fiction for adults (partially published under the pseudonym 'Frank Kippax' like e.g. Other People’s Blood) and a series of naval fiction revolving around his hero William Bentley (e.g. A Fine Boy for Killing).

In his mid-twenties N. left journalism to start a career as a writer, beginning with playwriting and later short stories and novels.

N. writes from an openly admitted political left-wing angle, his main themes being brutality, exploitation, racism and poverty. Thus he was able to add to the genre of naval (adventure) fiction a new perspective in his William Bentley books by depicting 18th century naval life as extremely brutal, bleak and marked by deprivation for the common sailor. A fact most "officer centred" naval fiction chooses not to explore.


Link to N.'s personal website