Irish Writer Sir William Trevor dies

Born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, in 1928, Trevor was a history graduate from Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to write over 15 novels. He won the Whitbread Prize three times and was short-listed for the Booker Prize four times, most recently with The Story of Lucy Gault (Penguin) in 2002, which was a favourite for the prize but lost out to The Life of Pi (Canongate).

Trevor contributed stories to the New Yorker for many years and had a firm belief that the short story was as great an art form as the novel, according to his publisher Penguin. Collected Stories was published with Viking in two volumes in 2009, including short stories "The Ballroom of Romance", "Kathleen’s Field" and "Cheating at Canasta". The stories were described by a Penguin spokesperson as "among the greatest stories of the last half-century, drawing comparison with the earlier masters of the form, Chekhov, Maupassant and Joyce".

The spokesperson added: "A modest and private man, Trevor disliked talking about his books and abhorred any personal publicity, believing that the work should stand for itself. He lived for many years in a secluded house in Devon, visiting Ireland frequently, taking walking holidays in Italy, and pursuing his passions of gardening and watching sport – especially rugby, cricket and tennis. But it was writing that truly absorbed him."

Trevor had lived in Devon since the 1950s, after moving to England with his wife Jane Ryan, who he met at university. First a sculptor, then a copywriter, he took up writing in earnest after taing a full-time job at a London advertising agency. His first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, which he subsequently disowned and refused to have republished, came out in 1958. In later years he chose to describe The Old Boys, which was published in 1964 and went on to win the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, as his first novel.

"In its comedic portrayal of unseemly, sometimes desperate behaviour hidden beneath a thin veil of decorum, it prefigured the theme of most of his early and middle-period novels, many of them set in a rundown, post-War London," said Penguin. "Later he turned his attention to his native Ireland, and in particular the tensions between the fading Anglo-Irish gentry and their Catholic neighbours. These were more complex books, exploring ideas of loyalty and betrayal, loss and belonging, often through multiple viewpoints, but always with a deeply felt compassion for all his characters."

Trevor was elected Saoi of Aosdána in September 2015 - an honour previously bestowed on writers such as Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney - during which the president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Trevor as "a writer of world renown, of great distinction, of towering achievements, of elegance and grace".

Trevor passed away on Sunday night (20th November). He is survived by his wife Jane and their two sons, Patrick and Dominic.