Sir Malcolm Bradbury

Sir Malcolm Bradbury (born September 7, 1932, Sheffield, England—died November 27, 2000, Norwich, Norfolk) was a British novelist and critic who is best known for The History Man (1975), a satirical look at academic life.

Bradbury studied at the University of Leicester (B.A., 1953), Queen Mary College (M.A., 1955) in London, and the University of Manchester, from which he received his doctorate in 1964. After traveling in the United States on a fellowship, he taught from 1959, first at the University of Hull, then at Birmingham. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the University of East Anglia, where he was a lecturer, reader, and then professor of American studies before retiring in 1995. In 1970 he helped found the university’s first creative writing course and became noted for encouraging new talent. Among the students he taught were Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Bradbury received critical acclaim for his first novel, Eating People Is Wrong (1959), which takes place in the provincial world of academics, a common setting for his novels. Less successful was Stepping Westward (1965), which leans heavily on his experience on an American university campus. Beginning with The History Man, Bradbury’s works became more technically innovative as well as harsher in tone. His later novels include Rates of Exchange (1983), the satiric tale of a linguist traveling to a fictional eastern European country; Why Come to Slaka? (1986), a guidebook to that fictional country; Cuts (1987); and Doctor Criminale (1992). His last novel, To the Hermitage, appeared in 2000. Bradbury also wrote several books and essays of criticism and literary history, as well as a number of television plays. He was appointed CBE in 1991 and was knighted in 2000.