John Spurling, born in Kenya to English parents, is a playwright, novelist and critic. In addition to numerous plays—his first being MacRune’s Guevara (1969)—produced on stage, television and radio, he is also the author of the novels The Ragged End (1989) and After Zenda (1995) and has written critical books on Samuel Beckett’s plays and Graham Greene’s novels. Spurling was also the New Statesman’s art critic from 1976 to 1988.