William Sansom

William Norman Trevor Sansom FRSL (born Norman Trevor Sansom; 18 January 1912 – 20 April 1976) was a British novelist, travel and short-story writer known for his highly descriptive prose style.

Profile Sansom was born in London, England, the third son of Ernest Brooks Sansom, MINA, a naval architect, by his wife Mabel (née Clark). He was educated at Uppingham School, Rutland, before moving to Bonn to learn German. Named Norman Trevor Sansom at birth, he was called "William" as a child and used this name throughout his life.

After the war, Sansom became a full-time writer. In 1946 and 1947 he was awarded two literary prizes by the Society of Authors, and in 1951 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1954, he married actress Ruth Grundy, daughter of Norman Grundy, FCA. They had one son, Nicholas. He also had a stepson, Sean, the son of Ruth Grundy's previous marriage to Grey Wilson Blake .

As well as exploring war-torn London, Sansom's writing deals with romance (The Face of Innocence), murder ("Various Temptations"), comedy ("A Last Word") and supernatural horror ("A Woman Seldom Found"). The latter, perhaps his most anthologized story, combines detailed description with narrative tension to unravel a young man's encounter with a bizarre creature in Rome.

Sansom died suddenly at St Mary's Hospital, London, from a serious illness.

Selected works

Novels The Body (1949) The Face of Innocence (1951) The Last Hours of Sandra Lee (1961) The Guilt in Wandering (1963) Hans Feet in love (1971) Skimpy (1974) A Young Wife's Tale (1974) The Cautious Heart The Loving Eye (1956) A Bed of Roses Goodbye (1966), adapted as a Play for Today episode in 1975 by Hugh Whitemore and Gavin Millar.

Short novels Three The Equilibriad

Short story collections Fireman Flower (1944) South (1948) Something Terrible, Something Lovely (1948) The Passionate North (1950) A Touch of the Sun (1952) Lord Love Us (1954) A Contest of Ladies (1956) Among the Dahlias (1957) The Stories of William Sansom (1963) The Ulcerated Milkman (1966) The Marmalade Bird (1973) Various Temptations (2002)

Non-fiction Westminster at War (1947) Pleasures Strange and Simple (1953) The Icicle and the Sun (1958) Blue Skies, Brown Studies (1961) Away to It All (1964) Christmas (1968) Grand Tour Today (1968) The Birth of a Story (1972) Proust and His World (1973)

Children's literature It Was Really Charlie's Castle The Light that Went Out

As illustrator Who's Zoo by Michael Braude (1963) – light verse; humor and satire, ; animals from A to Z in verse,