Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, born Winston Grime, was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he wrote numerous other works, including contemporary thrillers, period novels, short stories, non-fiction and plays.
14 Facts About Winston Graham
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Winston Graham was born in Victoria Park, Manchester, on 30 June 1908.
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Winston Graham's father, Albert Grime, was a prosperous tea importer and grocer, but became incapacitated by a stroke.
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When he was 17 years old, Winston Graham moved to Perranporth, Cornwall, where he lived for 34 years.
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Winston Graham had wanted to be a writer from an early age and, following the death of his father, he was supported by his mother while he wrote novels at home in longhand and attempted to get them published.
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Winston Graham lived in Perranporth from October 1925 until January 1960, then briefly, during the summer of 1960, in the south of France before finally settling in East Sussex.
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Winston Graham was a member of the Society of Authors from 1945, chairman of the Society's Management Committee from 1967 to 1969 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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In September 1939, Winston Graham married Jean Williamson, having first met her in 1926 when she was 13 years old.
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Winston Graham often helped Graham with ideas for his books, and the character of Demelza, in his Poldark series, was based in part on her.
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Winston Graham died on 10 July 2003, aged 95, at his house, 'Abbotswood' in Buxted, East Sussex.
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The series was set in Cornwall, especially in and near Perranporth where Winston Graham lived for more than three decades.
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Winston Graham was an accomplished author of suspense novels and, during the course of his life, wrote 30 novels as well as a volume of short stories and three non-fiction works.
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In 1972, Winston Graham published The Spanish Armadas, a factual account of the sixteenth-century Anglo-Spanish conflict.
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Winston Graham disliked early episodes of Poldark so much that he tried to have the first series cancelled, but could do nothing about it.