Sinclair, Andrew

(British, 1935– )

Sinclair was born in Oxford and educated at Harvard and Cambridge. He was a lecturer during the 1960s and subsequently worked in publishing. Begin with the seriocomic view of army life in The Breaking of Bumbo (1959), based on his experiences of National Service at the time of the Suez crisis. The Albion Triptych projects its fantasy and satire across English history from the Druidic era to post-war Britain. It is made up of Gog (1967), presenting Labour's victory in the 1945 elections in a vast historical context, Magog (1972), dealing with the decline of post-war Britain, and King Ludd (1988), which moves between modern Cambridge and the Luddite Riots of 1811–16. His other novels include The Project (1960), concerning the development of the ultimate nuclear weapon, which is about to destroy the world as the book ends.

Janice Elliot, William Golding  DH