LONDON (AP) — British author David Lodge, who was twice shortlisted for the country's top literary prize, has died. He was 89 years old.
Lodge's family said they were “very proud” of the prolific writer, who died on New Year's Day, according to a statement released by his publisher, Penguin Random House.
Lodge is probably best known for his two Booker Prize-nominated novels, “Small World: An Academic Romance” from 1984 and “Nice Works” four years later.
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Both novels follow 1975's “Changing Places,” the first in a trilogy about a fictional university. The trilogy was successfully adapted for television in the 1980s.
Lodge, who also wrote memoirs and television screenplays, taught in the English department at the University of Birmingham between 1960 and 1987 before retiring to concentrate on writing.
“It was interesting growing up with David Lodge as a father,” his family said. “The conversation around the dinner table was always lively, our mother Mary holding her ground, while David was ready, with a reference book, to research something that was controversial.”
Lodge editor Liz Foley said it was “a real privilege and joy to be David’s editor and I will miss him dearly”.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1998 for services to literature.
Lodge's wife, Mary, died in January 2022. He is survived by three children, Stephen, Christopher and Julia.
