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Charles Chadwick Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Charles Chadwick
© Robin Farquhar-Thompson

Charles Chadwick

Charles Chadwick Biography

Charles Chadwick was born in 1923 and is an English novelist. He was a British Council officer in Nigeria and then later worked in Kenya, Brazil, Canada and Poland. After retiring from service, he wrote many novels, which were all rejected by publishers.

But in 2004, he was offered a deal for his novel It's All Right Now. The book received positive reviews from major press outlets.



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Interview

Charles Chadwick discusses his fascinating first novel It's All Right Now and reveals what he's working on now.

It's All Right Now is your first novel. How long did it take to write and what was your process? Do you feel your work would be less rich or different in some way if you had not maintained a full career?

Beginning in the early 70s, it was written over a period of about 30 years in four installments at about eight year intervals when I began wondering what might have happened to Ripple, what people he had met, how he might have changed. I had no choice but to follow a career. Unlike Ripple's, my life was mainly overseas. We have nothing in common in background or education, nor do any of the characters bear any resemblance to people I've known in real life. The connection between life and work is one I find it very difficult to make. Literature draws as much from literature itself as from life, I think.

The structure of the book is almost a non-structure -- undisciplined but highly effective. Can you discuss how you put this book together? How did you create this informal structure -- one with very little plot -- that perfectly suits the tone and voice of the narrator?

My aim was, very simply, truth to life. Lives do not have structures or plots -- these are mythic artifices. Ripple himself has...

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Books by this Author

Books by Charles Chadwick at BookBrowse
It's All Right Now jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Charles Chadwick but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • William Boyd

    William Boyd

    William Boyd has received world-wide acclaim for his novels. They are: A Good Man in Africa (1981, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize) An Ice Cream War (1982, shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    It's All Right Now

    Try:
    Any Human Heart
    by William Boyd

  • John Lanchester

    John Lanchester

    John Lanchester was born in Hamburg in 1962. He grew up in the Far East, but was educated in England. A former editor at the publishers Penguin, he is a member of the editorial board of the London Review of Books and is a ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    It's All Right Now

    Try:
    Mr. Phillips
    by John Lanchester

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

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All my major works have been written in prison...

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