"The Children Of Dynmouth" - a classic prize-winning novel by William Trevor. "Penguin Decades" bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. The 1970s was a decade of anger and discontent. Britain endured power cuts and strikes. America pulled out of Vietnam and saw its President resign from office. Feminism and face lifts vied for women's hearts (and minds). And for many, prog rock, punk and disco weren't just music but ways of life. William Trevor's "The Children of Dynmouth" (Winner of the Whitbread Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) was first published in 1976 and is a classic account of evil lurking in the most unlikely places. In it we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the bland seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy takes a prurient interest in the lives of the adults there, who only realise the sinister purpose to which he seeks to put his knowledge too late. "A small masterpiece of understatement ...a work of rare compassion". (Joyce Carol Oates, "New York Times"). If you enjoyed "The Story of Lucy Gault" and "Love and Summer", you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. His books in Penguin are: "After Rain"; "A Bit on the Side"; "Bodily Secrets"; "Cheating at Canasta"; "The Children of Dynmouth"; "The Collected Stories" (Volumes One and Two); "Death in Summer"; "Felicia's Journey"; "Fools of Fortune"; "The Hill Bachelors"; "Love and Summer"; "The Mark-2 Wife"; "Selected Stories"; "The Story of Lucy Gault" and "Two Lives".

Author Biography

William Trevor was born into a Protestant family in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, before moving to London where he worked as a teacher and as a copywriter in advertising. His first novel was published in 1958. His novels have won many prizes and he has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. He is also regarded as a master of the short story - John Banville called him the greatest living writer of stories. He was awarded an honorary knighthood in 2002. He has lived for many years in Devon.