PASSINGS / Stanley Middleton

Stanley Middleton, 89, a prolific novelist who shared the prestigious Booker Prize in 1974, has died of cancer, his family said. Middleton died in Nottingham in central England on July 25, a week short of his 90th birthday.

Nearly all of Middleton’s 44 novels were based in Nottingham, though he often called it “Beechnall” in his writings.

He was born Aug. 1, 1919, in Nottingham, earned his university degree in the city and taught English at High Pavement school from 1947 to 1981, heading the department for 23 years.

Middleton was 38 when he published his first novel, “A Short Answer,” but produced a new book nearly every year thereafter.

“Holiday,” which shared the Booker Prize with Nadine Gordimer’s “The Conservationist,” told of a man struggling with the death of his son and the decay of his marriage.