Profiles

Back in the 60s he hit the big time when Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, that book that introduced the world to womanising Arthur Seaton became a best seller.

When it was turned into a film it caused shockwaves because of its authentic northern grittiness.

But Alan Sillitoe has written many more books including a sequel to Saturday Night... called Birthday, in 2001.

Growing up

Alan Sillitoe was born on the 4 March 1928. He left school at 14 to work in the Raleigh bicycle factory before joining the Royal Air Force four years later.

During his time in the RAF he contracted tuberculosis and spent 16 months in hospital where he began to write.

In 1958 he wrote his first novel 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' which went on to be hugely successful and was adapted for the screen, as was his second novel 'The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner'.

Talking about his life

In an interview with BBC Radio Nottingham's John Holmes, conducted in March 2005, he talked about:-

• The birth of Arthur Seaton
• Pub crawls in Nottingham
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
• Birthday - the book that told about Arthur in his later years
• Nottingham as a story location
• Living in Majorca in the 1950s
• The book Leading the Blind
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - the movie
• Alan Sillitoe in 2005