David Malcolm Storey (13 July 1933 – 27 March 2017) was an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player.

Early life and career

Storey was born on 13 July 1933 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the son of a coal miner, Frank Richmond Story, and Lily (née Cartwright) Story. He was educated at QEGS Wakefield. He continued his education at London's Slade School of Fine Art, and supported himself there by playing rugby for Leeds RLFC where he played half-back for the "A" team, with occasional appearances with the first.

His plays include The Restoration of Arnold Middleton, The Changing Room, Cromwell, Home, and Stages. His novels include Flight into Camden, which won the 1961 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the 1963 Somerset Maugham Award; and Saville, which won the 1976 Booker Prize.

He wrote the screenplay for This Sporting Life (1963), directed by Lindsay Anderson, adapted from his first novel of the same name, originally published in 1960, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. The film was the beginning of a long professional association with Anderson, whose film version of Storey's play In Celebration was released as part of the American Film Theatre series in 1975. Home and Early Days (both starred Sir Ralph Richardson; Home starred Sir John Gielgud) were made into television films.

Storey's novels Radcliffe and Pasmore were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Personal life and death

In 1956, Storey married Barbara Rudd Hamilton, with whom he had four children. Barbara Hamilton died in 2015.

Storey died on 27 March 2017 in London at the age of 83. The cause was Parkinson's disease and dementia. Survivors include his two sons, Jake and Sean; two daughters, Helen and Kate; a brother, Anthony; and six grandchildren.

Works

• This Sporting Life (1960) (made into the 1963 film This Sporting Life)
• Flight into Camden (1961)
• Radcliffe (1963)
• The Restoration of Arnold Middleton (1967)
• In Celebration (1969)
• The Contractor (1970)
• Home (1970)
• The Changing Room (1973)
• Pasmore (1972) – winner of the 1973 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
• The Farm (1973)
• Cromwell (1973)
• A Temporary Life (1973)
• Edward (1973)
• Life Class (1974)
• Saville (1976) – winner of the 1976 Booker Prize
• Mother's Day (1977)
• Early Days (1980)
• Sisters (1980)
• A Prodigal Child (1982)
• Present Times (1984)
• The March on Russia (1989)
• Storey's Lives: 1951–1991 (1992)
• A Serious Man (1998)
• As it Happened (2002)
• Thin-Ice Skater (2004)