'The inventor of the past'

 

“Writers of historical fiction are not under the same obligation as historians to find evidence for the statements they make. For us it is sufficient if what we say can't be disproved or shown to be false.” 

– Barry Unsworth

Born on this date in 1930 to a family of coal miners, Unsworth said his family “got out of that trap” when his father bucked tradition and became an insurance salesman.  “He saved us,” Unsworth said.   Barry started writing in his 30s and his historical novels became the gold standard in the genre.   “All my fiction starts from a feeling of unique perception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told.”

Three of his 17 novels were shortlisted for The Booker Prize, and his 1992 masterpiece Sacred Hunger about the English involvement in the slave trade shared the prize with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.

 

At the time of his death in 2012 – on June 4, the same day as science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's death – he was so well entrenched in historical fiction that Wall Street Journal writer Cynthia Crossen noted in a story about their deaths:  "Mr. Bradbury invented the future; Mr. Unsworth invented the past."

“I like the condition of being an outsider," Unsworth said.  "(Someone) just passing through.”