Winston Graham
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Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE (June 30, 1908–July 10, 2003) was an English novelist, best known for the Poldark series of historical novels.
Graham was born in Victoria Park, Manchester, England. When he was 17 he moved to Perranporth, Cornwall. His first novel, The House with the Stained Glass Windows was published in 1933; his first 'Poldark' novel, Ross Poldark, was published in 1945, and was followed by a series of eleven further titles, the last of which, Bella Poldark, came out in 2002. The series was set in Cornwall, especially in and around Perranporth, where Graham spent much of his life. The Poldarks was made into a BBC television series in the 1970s and was so successful that vicars moved or cancelled church services rather than try to hold them when Poldark was showing.
Aside from the Poldark series, Graham's most successful work was Marnie, a thriller which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Hitchcock had originally hoped that Grace Kelly would return to films to play the lead and she had agreed in principle, but the plan failed when the principality of Monaco realised that the heroine was a thief and sexually repressed. The leads were eventually taken by Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. Five of Graham's other books were filmed, including The Walking Stick, Night Without Stars and Take My Life. Graham wrote a history of The Spanish Armadas and an historical novel, The Grove of Eagles, based in that period. He was also a writer of suspense novels.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1983 was honoured with the OBE.
Graham's autobiography, Memoirs of a Private Man, was published by Macmillan in 2003.
