William Trevor

My House in Umbria

Born William Trevor Cox in County Cork, Ireland, in 1928, Trevor grew up with two siblings in a tense, silent household with parents who couldn’t stand each other. Though Trevor settled in England after college for economic reasons, he proudly embraces his Irish literary heritage and cites the outsider-ness conferred on him by his early Protestantism in Catholic Ireland as a creative gift.

From My House in Umbria:

“It is not easy to introduce myself. Gloria Grey, Janine Ann Johns, Cora Lamore: there is a choice, and there have been other names as well. Names hardly matter, I think; it is perhaps enough to say I like Emily Delahunty best.”

A devourer of mysteries and thrillers by age ten, he moved on to Maugham and Dickens and Irish authors in his teens. As a student, he only distinguished himself in writing, yet his youthful ambition was to follow his father into banking.

In 1952, while at Trinity College, Dublin, Trevor met Jane Ryan, his future wife. Upon graduation, he embarked on a career as a sculptor, then as a schoolteacher. For years he did no writing at all. In 1958 he had a novel published. It failed, forcing him to support himself as an ad-agency copywriter, a job he loathed. It was there that he began writing Old Boys (1964), his first proper novel and the one that established the name of William Trevor. The famous English writer Graham Greene declared Trevor’s collection Angels at the Ritz to be perhaps “the best since James Joyce’s Dubliners.”

Trevor emphatically insists he is not interested in himself. “Other people interest me far more,” he said. “Other people fascinate me.” He has won many awards, including the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award.

The Trevors live in a Victorian farmhouse in the countryside of Devon.

ALSO RECOMMENDED:

Cheating at Canasta. Subtle yet powerful, these exquisitely nuanced tales of regret, deception, adultery, aging, and forgiveness are a rare pleasure, and confirm Trevor’s reputation as a master of the short story form.

Old Fashioned

In My House in Umbria, Quinty (Mrs. Delahunty’s erstwhile pimp) makes an Old Fashioned for a guest.

1 oz. whiskey

1/4 oz. bitters

1 tsp. sugar

Splash of water

1 orange wheel

Maraschino cherry

In an old-fashioned glass, muddle sugar, bitters, and water. Add ice cubes. Add whiskey. Garnish with orange wheel and maraschino cherry. Serves 1.