A tribute to R.J. Gadney

Canongate wish to pay tribute to Reg Gadney, the artist, screenwriter, author and husband of restaurant critic Fay Maschler, who passed away on May 1st.

Gadney’s latest book, Albert Einstein Speaking, is published by Canongate this month and is being translated widely around the world.

The novel comes with advance praise from Ian McEwan who hailed it as ‘a strange and luminous fiction, a literary gem beautifully and cunningly poised between historical truth and the warmly imagined’.

Canongate’s CEO Jamie Byng said; ‘Reg was a man of many talents and subtle layers. Unfortunately I only got to know him towards the end of his life but we soon became dear friends and the impact he had on me was profound. His death is a great loss.

One of the many valuable things he left us with is Albert Einstein Speaking, the book that helped forge our friendship and which all of us at Canongate are immensely proud to be publishing. This final gift from Reg is one that I know will delight readers the world over for many years to come. It is a stunning reminder of how books transcend the everyday and can transport us beyond time and place. I love it for many of the same reasons I loved Reg – it is wise, playful, considered, original and kind.

Our thoughts are with his wife Fay and his dear family.’

Reg Gadney was born in Cross Hills, Yorkshire in 1941. After serving in the Coldstream Guards in London, Windsor, France, Libya and Norway, Reg studied English, Fine Art and Architecture at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. As a student he additionally served as the editor of Granta Magazine. In 1969 he was appointed Deputy Controller of the National Film Theatre, before beginning his tutoring career at the Royal College of Art in 1970 where he spent the next 15 years as a Senior Tutor, Fellow and the youngest Pro-Rector in the history of the College.

In 1984, Reg became a full-time writer of both screenplays and sixteen novels. On screen these included Last Love for the BBC, the award-winning Kennedy for Central TV and NBC, and a BAFTA-nominated adaptation of Minette Walters' novel The Sculptress, which aired on BBC One. His novels include the Alan Rosslyn books published by Faber and Albert Einstein Speaking by Canongate. He also wrote for the Spectator, the London Magazine and the Evening Standard and exhibited paintings worldwide.