The Lonely Londoners

About Sam Selvon

Samuel Selvon (1923-1994) was a Trinidad-born writer who moved to London England in the 1950s. His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English or nation language for narrative as well as dialogue. Selvon was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1955 and 1968) an honorary doctorate from Warwick University in 1989 and in 1985 the honorary degree of DLitt by the University of the West Indies. In 1969 he was awarded the Trinidad & Tobago Hummingbird Medal Gold for Literature and in 1994 he was (posthumously) given another national award the Chaconia Medal Gold for Literature. In 2012 he was honoured with a NALIS Lifetime Achievement Literary Award for his contributions to Trinidad and Tobago's literature. Roy Williams OBE worked as an actor before turning to writing full-time in 1990. He graduated from Rose Bruford in 1995 with a first class BA Hons degree in Writing. The No Boys Cricket Club (Theatre Royal Stratford East 1996) won him nominations for the TAPS Writer of the Year Award 1996 and for New Writer of the Year Award 1996 by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. He was the first recipient of the Alfred Fagon Award 1997 for Starstruck (Tricycle Theatre London 1998) which also won the 31st John Whiting Award and the EMMA Award 1999. Lift Off (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs 1999) was the joint winner of the George Devine Award 2000. His other theatre credits include Clubland (Royal Court 2001) for which Roy won the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for the Most Promising Playwright; Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (National Theatre 2002 2004); Sucker Punch (Royal Court 2010). He was awarded the OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List.