Irwin Allan Sealy is a writer born in 1951 in Allahabad

Allahabad

Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...

, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. His novel The Everest Hotel: A Calendar was shortlisted for the 1998 Booker prize

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...

.

Biography

Allan was born in Allahabad and he went to La Martiniere School

La Martiniere Lucknow

La Martinière College is an educational institution located in Lucknow, the capital of the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. The college consists of two schools on different campuses for boys and girls. La Martinière Boys' College was founded in 1845 and La Martinière Girls' College was established...

 in Lucknow and then on to St. Stephen's College, Delhi University

St. Stephen's College, Delhi

St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi located in Delhi, India. The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees under the purview of the University. Famous for its rich history and many traditions, St...

. He has worked in Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

His first novel The Trotter Nama was published in 1988 and tells the story of seven generations of an Anglo-Indian family. It includes references to his former school which is thinly disguised.

He now lives in Dehra Dun.

Awards

• Commonwealth Writers' Prize
  Commonwealth Writers' Prize
  Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
  
  , Best First Book, Europe and South Asia, in 1989
• Sahitya Akademi Award
  Sahitya Akademi Award
  Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
  
   in 1991
• Crossword Book Award
  Vodafone Crossword Book Award
  Vodafone Crossword Book Award is an Indian book award sponsored by Vodafone and Crossword Bookstores. It is India's biggest private sector award. The Award was instituted in 1998 with the intention of competing with The Booker Prize, Commonwealth Writers' Prize or The Pulitzer Prize.The award...
  
   in 1998

List of works

• The Trotter-Nama: A Chronicle, (New York: Knopf, 1988; London: Penguin Books, 1990; New York: Viking Penguin, 1990) ISBN 0-14-010210-8.
• Hero: A Fable, (London: Secker and Warburg, 1991, 288pp) ISBN 0-436-44478-X.
• From Yukon to Yukatan: a Western Journey, (London: Secker & Warburg, 1994., 323pp) ISBN 0-436-44479-8.
• The Everest Hotel: A Calendar, (London: Doubleday, 1998, 331pp) ISBN 0-385-41033-6.
• The Brainfever Bird, (London: Picador, 2003, 320pp) ISBN 0-330-41143-8.
• Red: An Alphabet (London: Picador, 2006, 343pp) ISBN 0-330-41147-0.

External links

• Allan reading from his work at The South Asian Literary recordings project accessed June 2007