Robertson Davies

1913–1995

Canadian novelist, playwright, journalist and critic, born in Thamesville, Ontario. He studied at Queen’s University, Kingston, and Balliol College, Oxford, acted with the Old Vic company and edited the Peterborough Examiner, where he wrote humorous essays as Samuel Marchbanks. In 1963 he became the first Master of Massey College in the University of Toronto. His novels fall into three trilogies, Salterton, Deptford (opening with Fifth Business) and Cornish. He died in December 1995. What’s Bred in the Bone, the life story of the painter, restorer and collector Francis Cornish, was shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Robertson Davies’s life

Works

• What's Bred in the Bone (1985)

Prizes

• What's Bred in the Bone — The Booker Prize 1986: Shortlist