Nigel Dennis
Nigel Dennis was a prominent English writer known for his ironic and satirical approach to literature, often critiquing established institutions and traditions. Born on January 16, 1912, in Bletchingley, Surrey, he spent much of his childhood in Rhodesia and attended schools in Austria and Bavaria. Dennis launched his literary career in New York in the 1930s, writing for notable publications like The New Republic and later serving as drama critic for Encounter magazine. His acclaimed novel, *Cards of Identity*, published in 1955, explores the fluidity of personal identity, and its success led to adaptations for the stage. Dennis was associated with the English Stage Company, contributing to the evolution of postwar British drama, particularly during the rise of the "Angry Young Men" movement. His plays, including *The Making of Moo* and *August for the People*, showcased his sharp satire but were met with mixed receptions. Despite his theatrical works, he is primarily celebrated as a novelist, reflecting a unique voice in 20th-century British literature.
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Nigel Dennis
Writer
- Born: January 16, 1912
- Birthplace: Bletchingley, Surrey, England
- Died: July 19, 1989
Biography
Nigel Dennis is known as an ironic and satirical iconoclast. He employed a keen wit to undercut long-standing institutions and traditions. He declared an affinity with Jonathon Swift, about whom he wrote his book Jonathon Swift: A Short Character, published in 1964. His detached and bemused perspective on human affairs may have its roots in his peripatetic life. Born in Bletchingley, Surrey, England, on January 16, 1912, he spent nearly all his childhood in Rhodesia with some of his schooling in South Africa. In 1927, at the age of fifteen, he was sent to live with his uncle in Austria and thence to attend the Odenwaldschule in Bavaria.
In 1934, with the help of an inheritance, he traveled to New York, where he launched his literary career writing book reviews for The New Republic. In 1940, he returned to Britain and served in the London Bureau for Time magazine. There he was drama critic for, and coeditor of, Encounter magazine and also wrote for The Daily Telegraph. His book Dramatic Essays (1962) came out of his work as a critic. He lived on the island of Malta in the late sixties and early seventies (out of which he wrote An Essay on Malta, 1972) before settling once and for all in Britain.
His novel Cards of Identity, published in 1955, drew critical praise and became a best-seller. It was preceded by two novels: Chalk and Cheese (1934), written under the pseudonym of Richard Vaugh and later disowned entirely, and Boys and Girls Come Out to Play (1949). Both were vaguely autobiographical. Such was not the case with Cards of Identity. This is an imaginative portrayal of the ease with which a person’s identity can be manipulated.
George Devine of the English Stage Company (ESC) took a keen interest in turning the novel into a play. He persuaded Dennis to undertake the task and he produced the play at the Royal Court Theatre the next year, 1956. This was the year of the emergence of the New Wave in British drama, the year the ESC produced John Osborn’s Look Back in Anger and other works that made the Royal Court Theatre the center for the “Angry Young Men.” The very next year, Devine produced Dennis’s The Making of Moo. The play attacks the ease with which a new religion, Moo, with all its conjured myths and elaborate rites, was able to manipulate the collective mind of a society. In 1961, Devine also produced Dennis’s last play, August for the People. The main character, Augustus Thwaite, is an aristocrat who denounces the new democracy as a sham and a cover for emerging tyranny. It was bitter satire that was not well received, despite the fact the Rex Harrison played the lead role.
Nigel Dennis posed a problem for critics trying to categorize him. He was too old and too ironic to be comfortably grouped with the Angry Young Men. He was a champion of theatricalism at a time when realism still held sway in the British theater. His association with the English Stage Company and its pioneering work gives him a special importance in the development of postwar British drama. Despite his acerbic wit and vivid dialogue, he is now remembered more as a novelist that as a dramatist.