Stan Barstow

Stanley Barstow FRSL (28 June 1928 – 1 August 2011) was an English novelist.

Biography Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School. He worked as a draughtsman and salesman for an engineering company. He was best known for his 1960 novel A Kind of Loving, which has been turned into a film, a television series, a radio play and a stage play. The author's other novels included Ask Me Tomorrow (1962), The Watchers on the Shore (1966) and The Right True End (1976). He frequently attended public events in Ossett, where he grew up, and Horbury, his birthplace.

Barstow's other works included Joby, which was turned into a television play starring Patrick Stewart, A Raging Calm, A Season with Eros, A Brother’s Tale, Just You Wait and See, Modern Delights and an autobiography, In My Own Good Time (2001). He also wrote plays and short stories. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1999.

Barstow married Connie Kershaw in 1951, and they had two children. In the late 1980s, he met Diana Griffiths who was beginning to learn her trade as a writer with Barstow's help. He and Connie Kershaw separated in 1990, though never divorced. Stan started a new life with Griffiths, now a writer in her own right, with eight original plays and nearly twenty dramatisations to her credit. Later he lived in Pontardawe, South Wales, with her. Stan Barstow died on 1 August 2011, aged 83.

The Stan Barstow Memorial Garden in Horbury is named after him.

Adaptations

His first novel, A Kind of Loving, has been adapted several times, starting with a 1962 film directed by John Schlesinger, which starred Alan Bates and June Ritchie. Barstow then adapted the novel for radio in 1964, followed by radio adaptations of the second book in the trilogy, The Watchers on the Shore, in 1966, and third, The Right True End in 1978. In 1978 he adapted all three books for a 10-part television series, titled A Kind of Loving, starring Clive Wood, Joanne Whalley and Susan Penhaligon.

In 1964, his short story The Human Element was filmed as an episode of Love Story.

Barstow adapted his 1968 novel, A Raging Calm, into a 7-part mini-series in 1974, starring Michael Williams, Alan Badel and Diana Coupland.

He adapted his 1964 novel Joby as 2-part television min-series in 1975. Directed by James Ormerod, it starred Patrick Stewart, Joanne Whalley, Richard Tolan and Lorraine Peters.

He created and wrote all episodes for the 1977 anthology series, The Cost of Loving. Directed by James Ormerod and David Reynolds, episodes featured actors such as Patricia Routledge, Jeff Rawle, Paula Wilcox, Jack Watson, Robert Brown and Anna Cropper.

In 1983 he adapted his 1980 novel, A Brother's Tale, as a 3-part television mini-series. Directed by Les Chatfield, it starred Trevor Eve and Kevin McNally.

Filmography

This table does not include adaptations of Barstow's published stories. For those, see #Adaptations, above.

Year Title Notes 1965 Z Cars Season 4, episode 19 - "The Luck of the Game" 1966 Armchair Theatre Season 6, episode 7 - "The Pity of It All" 1970 A Family At War Season 1, episode 3 - "Line of Battle" 1975 South Riding All 13 episodes, based on novel by Winifred Holtby 1978 Premiere (UK TV series) Season 2, episode 4 - "Travellers" 1993 The Man Who Cried Television movie, based on novel by Catherine Cookson 2006 Calon Gaeth Co-written with Diana Griffiths, based on novel by Siân James