Ian McEwan
(1948-), Novelist, short story and screen play writerIan Russell McEwan
Sitter in 7 portraits
Born in Aldershot, with a childhood in Singapore and North Africa, McEwan returned to boarding school and university in England. His first book, a collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites (1975), won the Somerset Maugham Award. His first novel The Cement Garden (1978) was followed by The Comfort of Strangers (1981). The Child in Time (1987) won the Whitbread Novel of the Year and Amsterdam the 1998 Booker Prize. His Booker-nominated Atonement (2001) has been adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His dark themes, claustrophobic settings and explorations of psychological states secured his place at the forefront of contemporary literature.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Mark Gerson
cibachrome print from original transparency, August 1979
NPG x88235
by Angela Gorgas
modern bromide print from original negative, 1979
NPG x133005
by Steve Pyke
bromide fibre print, 1990
NPG x45578
by Neil Wilder
C-type colour print, 25 February 2002
NPG x125492
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