Alan Sillitoe exploded onto the post-war literary scene with the one-two punch of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Both were adapted into films that became classics of British cinema. This initial blaze of success coincided with the Angry Young Men movement, a label that Alan rejected. He considered it a lazy and inaccurate pigeonhole for his work. The briefest overview of his bibliography proves him right.

Anyone who remembers Sillitoe for these two specific works might be surprised to find — in the 60-odd volumes of a career that spanned six decades — poetry, essays, plays, travel writing, memoirs, children’s books. Evaluated principally as a novelist, his output spans existential drama (The General), political satire (Travels in Nihilon), deconstructive thrillers (The Lost Flying-Boat, The German Numbers Woman), psychological meta-fiction (The Storyteller) and feminist character study (Her Victory).

In compiling More Raw Material: Work Inspired by Alan Sillitoe, we wanted to celebrate the diversity of his output as a writer, debunk the Angry Young Man cliche and direct the reader to other aspects of Sillitoe’s work.