British author Alan Sillitoe, best known for his depictions of working-class life in the 1950s and 1960s, died Sunday aged 82, his son said.
Sillitoe, whose books included "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", was known as one of the Angry Young Men of British literature, along with figures like John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.
His son David said Sillitoe had died in hospital in London and hoped he would be remembered for his contribution to literature.
Born in 1928 in Nottingham, central England, Sillitoe worked in a bicycle factory and for the Royal Air Force before starting to write, receiving encouragement from poet and novelist Robert Graves.
He published a volume of poetry in 1957 followed by "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" in 1958. The book tells the story of Arthur, a defiant young man who works in a factory, drinks and has affairs.
That was followed by "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" in 1959, a collection of short stories whose title story features a rebellious young man in a prison school with a passion for running.
Both were made into successful films, starring Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay respectively.
