T. J. Binyon

2025-04-07T20:14:04Z

2600:1002:B13A:3893:8075:C2E2:CA32:14D2: Undid revision 1284473328 by FMSky (talk) Undoing bad-faith reversion

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{Short description|English scholar and crime writer (1936 – 2004)}}
{{Infobox writer
|name=T. J. Binyon
|birth_name=Timothy John Binyon
|birth_date={{birth date|df=yes|1936|2|18}}
|birth_place=[[Leeds]], [[England]]
|death_date={{death date and age|df=yes|2004|10|7|1936|2|18}}
|death_place=[[Witney]], [[Oxfordshire]], England
|occupation=[[Crime writer]], [[scholar]]
|relatives=[[Laurence Binyon]] (great-uncle)<ref name=TI/><br />[[Nicolete Gray]] (cousin)
|genre=[[Crime]]
}}
'''Timothy John Binyon''' (18 February 1936 – 7 October 2004)<ref name=TI>{{cite web|title=T. J. Binyon|date=13 October 2004|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/t-j-binyon-543571.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/t-j-binyon-543571.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Obituary: Tim Binyon |date=2004-10-19 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317190540/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/oct/19/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries |archive-date=2023-03-17 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/oct/19/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries}}</ref><ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1474833/T-J-Binyon.html ''The Daily Telegraph'']</ref> was an English scholar and [[crime writer]].<ref name="Secret Classrooms">{{cite book |last1=Elliott|first1=Geoffrey|last2=Shukman|first2=Harold|title=Secret Classrooms: A Memoir of the Cold War|publisher=St Ermin's|date=2003|isbn=9781903608135}}</ref> He was a great-nephew of the poet [[Laurence Binyon]].<ref name=TI/>

==Early life==
T. J. Binyon was born in [[Leeds]], where his father Denis was a university lecturer. When, aged 18, doing his [[National Service]], he was assigned to the [[Joint Services School for Linguists]] in [[Bodmin]], [[Cornwall]], to learn [[Russian language|Russian]]. There, in 1954, the young soldiers, among them [[Alan Bennett]], [[Michael Frayn]] and [[Dennis Potter]], were trained to serve as translators and interpreters in the [[Cold War]].<ref name="Secret Classrooms" /> It was there that Binyon's interest in Russian language and literature was kindled.<ref name="Secret Classrooms" />

==Education and teaching career==
He studied at [[Exeter College, Oxford|Exeter College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], but read [[German language|German]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] instead of [[History]], which had been his original plan. After graduating he spent a year at [[Moscow State University]]. On returning to England, he took up teaching Russian literature at the [[University of Leeds]]. Eventually, in 1968, he became a [[fellow]] of [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham College]]. Oxford, and taught in the [[Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford|Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages]]. He served as [[Dean of Wadham College|Dean of Wadham]] during the 1970s and 80s and retired in the early 2000s.

==Crime fiction author and reviewer==
Apart from his academic career, Binyon had a great interest in [[crime fiction]]. He worked as a reviewer of detective fiction for ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' and the ''[[Evening Standard|London Evening Standard]]'' and wrote a theoretical book—''"Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction'' ([[OUP]], 1989)—and two crime novels, ''Swan Song'' ([[1982 in literature|1982]]) and ''[[Greek Gifts]]'' ([[1988 in literature|1988]]).

As emeritus, Binyon became a prize-winning author with a biography of [[Aleksandr Pushkin]], ''Pushkin: A Biography'' (2002), it was the [[Samuel Johnson Prize]] winner of 2003. The book received critical acclaim and was praised by John Bayley in ''[[Literary Review]]'': "No other work on Pushkin on the same scale, and with the same grasp of atmosphere and detail, exists in English, or in any other language apart from Russian."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/as-he-lay-dying-he-called-for-cloudberries|website=[[Literary Review]]|title=As He Lay Dying, He Called for Cloudberries|first=John|last=Bayley|date=September 2002}}</ref>

==Marriages and death==
Binyon was married twice, first to Felicity Butterwick (1974–1992) and, after a divorce, to Helen Ellis (from 2000 up to his death). He died, aged 68, of sudden [[heart failure]] in his house in [[Witney]], [[Oxfordshire]], while doing research for what was to be his next book, on [[Mikhail Lermontov]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binyon, T. J.}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Leeds]]
[[Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Moscow State University alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Leeds]]
[[Category:People from Witney]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:British Army soldiers]]

Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

T. J. Binyon