Alan Sillitoe was born in Nottingham, England, to working-class parents. His father worked in the Raleigh factory. In World War II he served with the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator in Malaysia from 1946-1949. Upon returning to England, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent sixteen months in an RAF hospital. After he was discharged, he lived in France and Spain on his veteran's pension and attempted to recover from the disease. In 1955, while living in Mallorca with his lover, American poet Ruth Fainlight, he began to write his first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which was published in 1958. He has written many novels and several volumes of poetry. In 1995 he wrote an autobiography, Life Without Armour. He married Ruth Fainlight, and lives in London.