Biography

His novel "Maurice" was written before the outbreak of the First World War, but Forster refused to let it be published until after his death, as it dealt with the then-taboo subject of homosexuality.

Educated at Tonbridge School, Kent. The E.M. Forster Theatre opened at the school in 2000.

English novelist, story writer, essayist and critic. He ceased writing novels in 1924 after publishing his most famous work, "A Passage to India". Most of his books evoke a nostalgic feeling for the Edwardian era. Forster also wrote the libretto for Britten's opera "Billy Budd".

As of 2016, three films adapted from his novels were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Passage to India (1984), A Room with a View (1986) and Howards End (1992).

One always tends to overpraise a long book because one has got through it.

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friends, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Such a choice may scandalize the modern reader, and he may stretch out his hand to the telephone at once and ring up the police. It would not have shocked [Dante Alighieri], though. Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circles of Hell because they had chosen their friend [Gaio Giulio Cesare] rather than their country Rome.

Although my mother has been intermittently tiresome for the last 30 years, cramped and warped my genius, hindered my career, blocked and buggered up my house, and boycotted my beloved, I have to admit she has provided a sort of rich subsoil where I have been able to rest and grow.

Oh, yes, indeed, the novel tells a story.