Philip Callow: 1924-2007

Philip Callow was a respected and influential Midlands author, best known for his novels and substantial biographies of notable authors and painters. Born in Stechford, near Birmingham, his first published novel was The Hosanna Man (1956), a thinly-autobiographical novel about a Midlands artist. He went on to write a total of fifteen novels as well as several collections of poetry and a book of short stories, Native Ground (1959). Towards the end of his career he became known as a respected biographer of writers and painters, with critics noting how he has the ability to “understand the intimate yet mysterious ways artists’ lives affect and become their work”.

His biographies include Son and Lover: the Young D.H. Lawrence (1975), Van Gogh: A Life (1990), From Noon to Starry Night: A Life of Walt Whitman (1992), Lost Earth: A life of Cézanne (1995), Chekhov: the Hidden Ground (1998), and Louis: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (2001). His more recent work includes the collection of reminiscences Passages from Home (2002), and the second volume of his D.H. Lawrence biographies, Body of Truth: D.H. Lawrence, the Nomadic Years (2003). He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and lived and wrote in the Cotswolds until his death.

Recent books:

Body of Truth: D. H. Lawrence, the Nomadic Years (Greenwich Exchange: 2003)
Passages from Home (Shoestring Press: 2002)
Louis: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (Constable & Robinson: 2001)