British · 1935–1979
J.G. Farrell won the 1973 Booker Prize for "The Siege of Krishnapur," part of his Empire Trilogy examining British colonial decline. The British author—who contracted polio at twenty-two—wrote historical fiction that combined meticulous research with dark comedy. Farrell drowned in 1979 at forty-four, cutting short a career that had established him as one of his generation's most talented novelists.