Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Trust Fundraiser (Wed 28 Nov 2012)

In 1970 Malcolm Bradbury co-founded (with Angus Wilson) the UEA Creative Writing MA, the first course of its kind in the UK. He taught on the programme until his retirement in 1995, and counted among his many successful students the future Booker prizewinners, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Anne Enright. A prolific and influential scholar and author, he wrote over forty books of non-fiction and criticism, as well as numerous screenplays for television, and seven novels, including The History Man, which was serialised for BBC television, and Rates Of Exchange, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He was awarded a CBE in 1991 for services to literature, and knighted in 2000.

Following his death in 2000 a memorial fund was established in his name, which supports two annual scholarships for promising students and funds a range of student-initiated projects, including the publication of the annual anthology of MA writing.

To mark the 80th anniversary of his birth, Picador are reissuing six of his novels, with new introductions by David Lodge, Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan, Giles Foden and John Boyne. The launch event was held at UEA on Wednesday 28 November 2012 and featured readings and reminiscences from John Boyne, Margaret Drabble & David Lodge in conversation with Christopher Bigsby.

John Boyne
John Boyne is the author of 7 novels for adults, including The Absolutist, and 3 for children, including the international bestseller The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, which sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. He was a student in Malcolm Bradbury's last creative writing class in 1994/95 and returned to UEA as Writing Fellow in 2004/05. His novels are published in 45 languages.

Margaret Drabble
Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. As well highly acclaimed novels, Drabble has also written biographies, screenplays and is the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2000 Honours list. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London and Somerset.

David Lodge
David Lodge is a novelist, critic and Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. He has also written stage plays and screenplays for television. His novels include Small World, Nice Work, Deaf Sentence, and most recently A Man of Parts.

Giles Foden
Giles Foden is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at UEA, having previously worked on the books pages of The Guardian and as a MAN Booker Prize judge in 2007. He has published four novels and a work of narrative non-fiction. His first novel, The Last King of Scotland, won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award and was released as an Oscar-winning film in 2006.