Robert McCrum

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Robert McCrum
Born
John Robert McCrum

(1953-07-07) 7 July 1953 (age 70)
Cambridge, England
Education Sherborne School
Alma mater Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Writer, editor
Parent(s) Michael William McCrum and Christine McCrum [1]
Website robertmccrumuk.com

John Robert McCrum (born 7 July 1953) is an English writer and editor, holding senior editorial positions at Faber & Faber over seventeen years, followed by a long association with The Observer .

Contents

Early life and education

The son of Michael William McCrum, a Cambridge-educated ancient historian, Robert McCrum was born in Cambridge on 7 July 1953. [2] He was educated at Sherborne School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MA (Cantab)), and the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron Scholar. [1] [3]

Career

McCrum was editorial director at Faber & Faber from 1979 to 1989 [4] and editor-in-chief there from 1990 to 1996. [5] He served as literary editor of The Observer for more than ten years. In May 2008 he was appointed associate editor of The Observer. [6]

McCrum is the co-author of The Story of English with William Cran and Robert MacNeil and wrote P. G. Wodehouse: A Life. McCrum's novel Suspicion was published in 1997. [7]

McCrum received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2011. [8]

In August 2017, McCrum's Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame was published, [9] taking its title from Shakespeare's play The Tempest . [10] The book was adapted and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week the following month. [11]

Personal life

In July 1995, McCrum suffered a massive stroke. [12] The devastating experience and his recovery is chronicled in My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. He had been married to Sarah Lyall, an American journalist, for only two months [1] and the book includes diary entries made by his wife. He also became a patron of the UK charity Different Strokes, which provides information and support for younger stroke survivors.

Sarah Lyall, who writes for The New York Times , lived in London from 1995 to 2013 and was the newspaper's London correspondent. She returned to New York with the couple's daughters in 2013; Lyall and McCrum later divorced. [13]

McCrum describes himself as "a confused non-believer". [14]

Bibliography

Fiction

Non-fiction

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "WEDDINGS; Sarah L. Lyall, Robert McCrum". The New York Times. 14 May 1995.
  2. ↑ "McCrum, Robert 1953–". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Writers in the Family" (PDF). The Thouron Awards. 2013–2014. p. 9. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  4. ↑ Foster, Sara; Gullen, Zoe, eds. (2001). Debrett's People of Today (2002 ed.). London: Debrett's. ISBN   9781870520164.
  5. ↑ McCrum, Robert (25 May 2008). "Have blogs been good for books?". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  6. ↑ McCrum, Robert (25 May 2008). "A thriller in ten chapters". The Observer . Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  7. ↑ https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Suspicion/2SB3QgAACAAJ?hl=en
  8. ↑ "Honorary Graduates" (PDF). Heriot-Watt University. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  9. ↑ McCrum, Robert (24 August 2017). Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame (hardback ed.). Picador. ISBN   978-1509815289.
  10. ↑ Morrison, Blake (6 July 2014). "Every Third Thought by Robert McCrum review – how to think about death". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  11. ↑ Reader: Nicky Henson; Author: Robert McCrum; Abridger: Barry Johnston; Producer: David Roper (4 September 2017). "Book of the Week: Every Third Thought Episode 1 of 5". Book of the Week . BBC. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  12. ↑ McCrum, Robert (13 August 2017). "'Words are the best weapons with which to come to terms with ageing'". The Observer.
  13. ↑ "'Sometimes I felt loud and gauche, like a guest who shows up at a memorial service wearing a Hawaiian shirt': the thoughts of a New York Times correspondent on leaving London". Evening Standard . 23 August 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "When thoughts often turn to death". The Economist . 19 August 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
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