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Harold Pinter wins Nobel for literature (LEAD)
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Oct13 (IANS) Harold Pinter, the controversial British playwright and cricket buff, who speaks out forcefully about the abuse of power across the world, has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature. 

Pinter, who celebrated his 75th birthday this week, is widely regarded as the greatest living playwright with a long and acclaimed career as a dramatist.

His surname has become an adjective for his style of writing - 'Pinteresque', which stands for theatrical flourishes, long pauses and also something very English, tense and ambiguous.

The term came into usage in 1960 after the performance of his first play, "The Room", at Bristol University's drama department.

Pinter has since written 29 plays including "The Birthday Party", "The Caretaker", "The Homecoming", and "Betrayal" and 21 film scripts including "The Servant", "The Go-Between" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman".

He has directed 27 theatre productions, including James Joyce's "Exiles", David Mamet's "Oleanna", seven plays by Simon Gray and many of his own plays including his latest, "Celebration", paired with his first, "The Room" at The Almeida Theatre in London in the spring of 2000.

Pinter has received several accolades during his career, including the Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg), the European Prize for Literature (Vienna), the Pirandello Prize (Palermo), the David Cohen British Literature Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. 

In 1999, the Royal Society of Literature made him a Companion of Literature. He has received honorary degrees from 14 universities.

Pinter is known for his strong political views that first surfaced in 1949 when he refused to do national service. Fascists targeted him in the East End of London in 1949.

He has aimed his strong political opinions at a number of targets over the years, including the US and Britain for bombing Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Pinter was particularly pleased with the success of his play "The Caretaker".

"That was a big success," Pinter told BBC in 2003.

"And in a sense I haven't looked back since - I just kept writing away really." 

Pinter is known for his love of the quintessential English game of cricket. Actor Roger Lloyd Pack once said Pinter's writing could be compared with the nuances of cricket. 

"In both, there is a loving attention to detail and a formality, a passion and correctness - the same concentration," Pack said. 

Friends describe Pinter as generous, loyal, charismatic and witty, with a competitive streak and short temper.

He married his first wife, actress Vivien Merchant, in 1956, but the couple divorced in 1980, two years before her death. After the divorce, he married the historian and writer, Lady Antonia Fraser.