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Booker Prize winner Barry Unsworth dies Booker Prize winner Barry Unsworth dies
(31 minutes later)
Barry Unsworth, the historical fiction author who shared the Booker Prize in 1992, has died in Italy aged 81. Barry Unsworth, the historical fiction author who shared the Booker Prize in 1992, has died at the age of 81.
Born in Durham in 1930, he was renowned for his extensive research and his ability to comment on the present with allegorical stories set in the past. His US agent told the href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/books/barry-unsworth-historical-novelist-dies-at-81.html" >New York Times he died in Perugia, Italy, of lung cancer.
Unsworth's Sacred Hunger, which dealt with the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th Century, shared the Booker with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. The joint Booker victory of Unsworth's Sacred Hunger and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient prompted a rule change preventing split decisions.
As a result, the rules were changed to prevent a future split decision. The Durham-born author was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1980 for Pascali's Island and Morality Play in 1995.
Unsworth's first novel, The Partnership, was published in 1966. His most recent book The Quality of Mercy was published last year and was a continuation of Sacred Hunger. Born in 1930, Unsworth was renowned for his extensive research.
Pascali's Island, his first historical novel, was shortlisted for the Booker in 1980 and was made into a film starring Ben Kingsley and Charles Dance eight years later. His first novel The Partnership was published in 1966, while his most recent - The Quality of Mercy, a continuation of Sacred Hunger - came out last year.
His 1995 novel Morality Play also made the Booker shortlist. That too was filmed, as The Reckoning, in 2003. Sacred Hunger, which dealt with the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th Century, was an example of the way Unsworth used allegorical stories set in the past to comment on the present.
According to the href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/books/barry-unsworth-historical-novelist-dies-at-81.html" >New York Times, his US agent attributed his death in Perugia, Italy, to lung cancer. Pascali's Island, his first historical novel, was turned into a film starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Charles Dance in 1988.
Morality Play became the basis of 2003's film The Reckoning, featuring Paul Bettany and Willem Dafoe.
His other novels included The Greeks Have a Word For It, Losing Nelson and The Ruby In Her Navel.
"All my fiction starts from a feeling of unique perception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told," the author once said."All my fiction starts from a feeling of unique perception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told," the author once said.
"Whatever the ramifications, whatever turns the path takes, the beginning is always there, in a particular moment, a particular point of access.""Whatever the ramifications, whatever turns the path takes, the beginning is always there, in a particular moment, a particular point of access."