Rayner Heppenstall
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John Rayner Heppenstall (27 July 1911 in Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England - 23 May 1981 in Deal, Kent, England) was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.
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[edit] Novelist
Heppenstall's first novel The Blaze of Noon, was briefly banned for obscenity[citation needed]. He was unusual amongst British novelists in that he was influenced by the French nouveau roman[citation needed]. Several critics (including, according to his diaries, Helene Cixous) named Heppenstall as its founder.[citation needed] He was influenced by Alain Robbe-Grillet, and became associated with Anthony Burgess, B. S. Johnson, Ann Quin, Alan Burns, Stefan Themerson and Eva Figes.
He was particularly influenced by Raymond Roussel, whose Impressions of Africa he translated.[citation needed] Later novels include The Shearers, Two Moons and The Pier. He also wrote a short study of the French Catholic writer, Léon Bloy (Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1953).
[edit] With Orwell
He was also friend of George Orwell, and wrote about him in his memoir Four Absentees. On one occasion, at a time when Heppenstall, Orwell and a third man shared a flat, Heppenstall came home drunk and noisy, and when Orwell emerged from his bedroom and asked him to pipe down, Heppenstall took a swing at him. Orwell then beat him up with a shooting-stick, and the following morning told him to move out. Friendship was restored, but after Orwell's death, Heppenstall wrote an account of the incident called "The Shooting-Stick". At the time of the incident, sympathies were generally on Orwell's side; it has been pointed out that Heppenstall, who behaved in a threatening manner, was younger and stronger than Orwell.[1]
[edit] Critical studies
- Buckell, G.J. (2007). Heppenstall - A Critical Study (DAP). ISBN 1564784711 : ISBN-13 978-1564784711
[edit] References
- ^ Bernard Crick: "George Orwell: A Life", 1982
