McCrum, Robert 1953–

PERSONAL: Born July 7, 1953, in Cambridge, England; son of Michael William (a professor) and Christine (a teacher) McCrum; married Olivia Timbs (a journalist), September 8, 1979 (divorced); married Sarah Lyall (a journalist), 1995; children: a daughter. Education: Cambridge University, degree (with honors), 1975; University of Pennsylvania, M.A., 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Office—c/o The Observer, 119 Farringdon Rd., London EC1R 3ER, England. Agent—John Farquharson Ltd., Bell House, 8 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JU, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, editor. Associated with Chatto & Windus Ltd., London, England, 1976–79; Faber & Faber Ltd., London, commissioning editor, beginning 1979; Observer, newspaper, London, England, current literary editor.

WRITINGS:

In the Secret State (novel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1980.

A Loss of Heart (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 1982.

The Brontosaurus Birthday Cake (children's book), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984.

The Fabulous Englishman, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1985.

(With William Cran and Robert MacNeil) The Story of English, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

The Dream Boat Brontosaurus (children's book), Methuen Children's Books (London, England), 1989.

Mainland (novel), Knopf (New York, NY), 1992.

The Psychological Moment, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1993.

Jubilee (novel), Knopf (New York, NY), 1994.

Suspicion (novel), W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

My Year Off: Recovering Life after a Stroke (memoir), W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1998.

Wodehouse: A Life, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2004.

ADAPTATIONS: The Story of English was adapted as a television series by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

SIDELIGHTS: Robert McCrum is an English author of numerous well-received novels, as well as of several nonfiction works, including The Story of English and Wodehouse: A Life. A long-time editor, McCrum made his publishing debut with the 1980 thriller, In the Secret State. Though most of his fiction has been more popular in his native England than in the United States, several of his novels have proved popular on both sides of the Atlantic. His 1992 Mainland uses Northern Ireland as a backdrop for a "tightly controlled, very British story," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor, who also felt the work was "a powerful fable of contemporary conflict." Similar praise met his 1994 novel, Jubilee, dealing with transatlantic intrigue and family secrets. A Publishers Weekly critic deemed that work to be a "highly intelligent suspense novel with unexpected layers of emotion," as well as "accomplished." McCrum's 1997 novel, Suspicion, was, according to Entertainment Weekly critic Alexandra Jacobs, a "highly digestible novel of fraternal betrayal." In this novel, renegade Raymond Whyte returns to his quiet English village after the fall of the Berlin Wall, his German wife in tow. But there is little peace to be found in the quiet hamlet, either for Raymond or for his brother Julian, the local coroner, as the German wife appears to have a secret past. People contributor Pam Lambert praised Suspicion, calling it a "deftly written tale of betrayal and guilt."

McCrum has also proved successful at nonfiction, beginning with his 1986 title, The Story of English, cowritten with William Cran and Robert MacNeil, the newscaster. McCrum and his coauthors provide an overview of the history of the language. Their book went on to be adapted as a nine-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series. Reviewing the book in People, Campbell Geeslin found it "endlessly fascinating." Louis Menand, however, had a different perspective in his New Republic review of the same work, complaining that the "colossal, overweening, unblinking chauvinism about its subject" was "disturbing." Menand went on to explain: "It seems that English is destined to become the first language of the world—not because of anything the British navy and the American dollar might have wrought, but because it's such a wonderful language." More positive in his assessment was Jim Quinn in a review of the book and television series in the Nation. Quinn felt that The Story of English "is the best refutation ever made of the idea that English is the private property of teachers of college composition courses, television commentators who care and word haters who write letters to the editor every time someone uses less instead of fewer. English, as this series shows us so thoroughly and so affectionately, is a great sea of a language, with multitudinous variants."

McCrum worked from personal experience for his 1998 title, My Year Off: Recovering Life after a Stroke. Shortly after his 1995 marriage to American journalist Sarah Lytall, and at the relatively early age 42, McCrum suffered a massive stroke that almost took his life and left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak. With the help of his new wife and the encouragement of friends, McCrum was finally able to learn to walk and talk again, and to continue his life, even fathering a daughter. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Vanessa V. Friedman found My Year Off a "hopeful tale." Wilda Williams in the Library Journal concluded, "McCrum's memoir has value for younger stroke victims and their families."

McCrum next took on the biography of the English humorist, P.G. Wodehouse in the 2004 title, Wodehouse. As McCrum explained to Benedict Page in Bookseller, part of the reason for his interest in Wodehouse was that author's elusive character and prolific rate of production: "[Wodehouse is] a great stylist and a great English humorist: I think he's a minor genius…. He wrote about 100 books and they are all in print—what other 20th-century writer can you say that about? Almost none. Auden, Joyce, Eliot—he's in very good company. I think any canon from Shakespeare onwards that includes Austen and Dickens must include him." The resulting biography drew praise from many quarters. William Cook, writing in the New Statesman, called it an "absorbing study of the greatest comic writer of the 20th century." Similarly, Anthony J. Pucci, writing in the Library Journal, described the biography as "thoroughly researched and well written." New Criterion contributor James Panero noted that "this biography had the rare effect of encouraging me to read and reread the literature of its subject." Likewise, Wilson Quarterly writer Mark O'Donnell described Wodehouse as a "a manifest and impressive labor of love."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

McCrum, Robert, My Year Off: Recovering Life after a Stroke, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1998.

PERIODICALS

Bookseller, May 21, 2004, Benedict Page, "Capturing an Enigma: Robert McCrum Talks about His Biography of the Comic Genius P.G. Wodehouse," p. 30.

Entertainment Weekly, April 25, 1997, Alexandra Jacobs, review of Suspicion, p. 65; October 16, 1998, Vanessa V. Friedman, review of My Year Off, p. 82.

Library Journal, February 15, 1997, Barbara Hoffert, review of Suspicion, p. 163; September 15, 1998, Wilda Williams, review of My Year Off, p. 102; September 15, 2004, Anthony J. Pucci, review of Wodehouse: A Life, p. 58.

Nation, September 27, 1986, Jim Quinn, review of The Story of English, p. 283.

New Criterion, December, 2004, James Panero, review of Wodehouse, p. 84.

New Republic, February 16, 1987, Louis Menand, review of The Story of English, p. 28.

New Statesman, October 23, 1998, Charlotte Raven, review of My Year Off, p. 46; November 29, 2004, William Cook, review of Wodehouse, p. 43.

People, October 27, 1986, Campbell Geeslin, review of The Story of English, p. 21; March 17, 1997, Pam Lambert, review of Suspicion, p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1992, review of Mainland, p. 89; May 2, 1994, review of Jubilee, p. 282; September 7, 1998, John F. Baker, "Robert McCrum: Helped Back from Death," p. 68.

Wilson Quarterly, winter, 2005, Mark O'Donnell, review of Wodehouse, p. 117.