British author Alan Sillitoe dies at 82

LONDON - English writer Alan Sillitoe died Sunday aged 82 in a London hospital, his family confirmed.

He was dubbed one of the “Angry Young Men” of the 1950s, whose work reflected the disillusionment of the young working class after World War II. Other “members” included Kingsley Amis, John Osborne and John Braine.

Sillitoe’s debut novel “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (1958) as well as the short story collection “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1959) became worldwide bestsellers. Both were later turned into films.

Sillitoe was born in Nottingham March 4, 1928, the second son of an illiterate tannery labourer.

He later said of his childhood that “we lived in a room in Talbot Street whose four walls smelled of leaking gas, stale fat and layers of mouldering wallpaper”.

Sillitoe married Ruth Fainlight, an American poet, in 1959. They had a son and an adopted daughter.

On Sunday, his son David said that he hoped his father would always be remembered for his contribution to British literature.