Nigel Dennis

Nigel Dennis (1912-1989) was an English novelist, critic, and playwright born in Surrey, schooled in Southern Rhodesia and at Germany's progressive Odenwaldschule. He worked as a journalist in the United States from 1934, with posts at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, The New Republic, and Time, before returning to Britain around 1950. His debut novel, Boys and Girls Come Out to Play (1949), shared the Anglo-American novel award with Anthony West; his best-known book, Cards of Identity (1955), is a witty psychological satire of identity and belief. He reviewed books for the Sunday Telegraph for two decades, co-edited Encounter magazine from 1963 to 1970, and won the Royal Society of Literature Award for a study of Jonathan Swift.