Paul West was born in Eckington, Derbyshire, England on February 23, 1930. He received a degree in English with first-class honors at the University of Birmingham and a master's degree from Columbia University. He did his compulsory military service with the Royal Air Force and then took a teaching post in English literature at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. He began teaching at Pennsylvania State University in 1963 and retired from there in 1995.
He wrote numerous novels including Alley Jaggers, Bela Lugosi's White Christmas, Tenement of Clay, The Rat Man of Paris, Terrestrials, Lord Byron's Doctor, Sporting with Amaryllis, The Women of Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper, Love's Mansion, Red in Tooth and Claw, The Ice Lens, and The Invisible Riviera. He also wrote several memoirs including Words for a Deaf Daughter, Out of My Depths: A Swimmer in the Universe, A Stroke of Genius: Illness and Self-Discovery, My Mother's Music, My Father's War, The Shadow Factory, and Oxford Days. He died from pneumonia on October 18, 2015 at the age of 85.
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