Alexander Baron

Alexander Baron 19171999 was a novelist and screenwriter Born into a working class Jewish home in Hackney Baron joined the Communist Party as a young man saw the thick of battle in Sicily and Normandy during WWII and became one of the most admired novelists of postwar Britain His first novel From the City From the Plough 1948 was based on his own wartime experiences specifically DDay and was acclaimed as the definitive novel of WWII It was the first of a trilogy including Theres No Home 1950 and The Human Kind 1953 the latter of which was adapted into the film The Victors 1963 Literary success led to him writing screenplays for films such as Robbery Under Arms 1957 and The Siege of Sidney Street 1960 This was followed by a string of novels about working class life in postwar London including The Lowlife 1963 a cult novel for many other writers ever since and a secondary career as a TV scriptwriter specifically adapting literary classics like The Further Adventures of the Musketeers 1967 The Legend of Robin Hood 1975 A Horseman Riding By 1978 Sense and Sensibility 1981 The Hound of the Baskervilles 1982 Stalky Co 1982 Jane Eyre 1983 Goodbye Mr Chips 1984 Oliver Twist 1985 and Vanity Fair 1987 In recent years Barons reputation has flourished with many of his fifteen novels now back in print