A History of English Literature

1960s a storm went through. Its harbingers, Beckett and Golding, were neither
young nor consistently grim.

nDrama

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett(1906–1989) had the career of an Irish exile. A Protestant, he was
educated at Wilde’s old school – captaining the cricket XI – and lecturing in French
at Trinity College, Dublin. He left for Paris, a city which was still hostess to interna-
tional modernism, wrote on Proust, translated Finnegans Wake into French, became
Joyce’s disciple. After the war he wrote three novels – in French rather than his native
language, in order to write ‘without style’. In 1952 Beckett wrote En attendant Godot.
After its success in Paris, he translated it. As Waiting for Godotit came to London in

DRAMA 381

Events and publications 1955– continued

Events Publications

1971 Geoffrey Hill, Mercian Hymns; Edward Bond, Lear
1972 Tom Stoppard, Jumpers; Seamus Heaney, Wintering Out;
Donald Davie, Collected Poems
1973 UK enters Common Market. Ceasefire in Vietnam 1973 R. S. Thomas, Selected Poems; Alan Ayckbourn, The
Norman Conquests
1974 US President Richard Nixon resigns 1974 Beryl Bainbridge, The Bottle Factory; Tom Stoppard,
Travesties; Philip Larkin, High Windows
1975 Malcolm Bradbury, The History Man; Seamus Heaney,
North; Charles Causley, Selected Poems; David Lodge,
Changing Places
1976 James Callaghan (Labour) becomes Prime Minister 1976 Tom Stoppard, Professional Foul
1977 Barbara Pym, Quartet in Autumn; Paul Scott, Staying On
1978 Pope John Paul II elected 1978 Tony Harrison, The School of Eloquence; Geoffrey Hill,
Tenebrae; Charles Tomlinson, Selected Poems; A. S. Byatt,
The Virgin in the Garden
1979 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) becomes 1979 William Golding, Darkness Visible; Seamus Heaney, Field
Prime Minister Work
1980 William Golding, Rites of Passage; Paul Muldoon, Why
Brownlee Left; Brian Friel, Translations
1981 Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children; Molly Keane, Good
Behaviour
1982 Caryl Churchill, Top Girls
1984 Seamus Heaney, Station Island; Angela Carter, Nights at
the Circus; Douglas Dunn, Elegies
1985 Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
1989 Collapse of Eastern European regimes. The end of
the Cold War
1990 Fall of Margaret Thatcher 1990 Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa
1997 Tony Blair (Labour) becomes Prime Minister
1999 Devolution to Scotland and Wales