Stan Barstow was born in Ossett in 1928 the only son of a coal miner.

Stan attended Ossett Grammar School and left aged sixteen to work in the drawing office at a local engineering firm. Later, he moved to another engineering company where he worked in the sales department.

He started writing in the 1950s and some of his short stories were broadcast by the BBC.

His first published work (as Stanley Barstow) was a short story entitled ‘The Search for Tommy Flynn’. The story was reprinted in ‘The Desperadoes’ in 1962.)

Following an unpublished novel in 1956 came ‘A Kind of Loving’ in 1960. This was a huge success, and was made into a film and later a television series.

Following this success Stan became a full time writer, writing novels, short stories and scripts for television and radio. Another novel of note is ‘Joby’ which was captured on film in 1976. ‘Joby’ was filmed almost entirely in Horbury and Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek fame) played Joby’s father in the film.

Stan Barstow’s books are now available in several languages, and are widely read in schools.

Books and Short Stories

A list of Stan Barstow's books and short stories in chronological order:

• A Kind of Loving (1960)
• The Desperadoes and other stories (1961)
• Ask Me Tomorrow (1962)
• Joby (1964)
• The Watchers on the Shore (1966)
• A Raging Calm (1968)
• The Human Element (1969)
• A Season with Eros (1971)
• The Right True End (1976)
• A Casual Acquaintance and other stories (1976)
• A Brother's Tale (1980)
• A Kind of Loving (The Vic Brown Trilogy) (1982)
• The Glad Eye and other stories (1984)
• Just You Wait And See (1986)
• B-Movie (1987)
• Give Us This Day (1989)
• Next Of Kin (1991)
• In My Own Good Time (2001)

Film and TV Credits

Stan Barstow's film and television credits in chronological order:

• A Kind of Loving (1962)
• "Armchair Theatre"  - The Pity of It All (1966) TV Episode
• "A Family at War" (1970) TV Series (writer)
• "A Raging Calm" (1974) (mini) TV Series
• "South Riding" (1974) TV Series (adaptation)
• Joby (1976)
• "A Kind of Loving" (1982) TV Series (novel)
• A Brother's Tale (1983) (TV)
• The Man Who Cried (1993) (TV)