3 Dec 1908
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Balchin born in Potterne, Wiltshire
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1918
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Starts at Dauntsey’s School
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1 Nov 1927
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Matriculates at Peterhouse, Cambridge
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24 June 1930
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Graduates with BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences
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18 Aug 1930
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Begins work for the National Institute of Industrial Psychology
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Jan 1933
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Launch of Black Magic chocolates, with which Balchin was heavily involved
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21 Jan 1933
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Balchin marries Elisabeth Evelyn Walshe
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1934
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Publication of Balchin’s first two books: No Sky (a novel) and How To Run a Bassoon Factory (non-fiction)
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16 Sept 1934
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Birth of Prudence, Balchin’s first daughter
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8 Feb 1935
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Leaves NIIP to join Rowntree’s
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19 Nov 1937
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Birth of Penelope, Balchin’s second daughter
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Sept 1939
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Joins Manufacturing Confectioners Alliance as Allocations Officer
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July 1940
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Joins Economics Division of Ministry of Food
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2 Aug 1941
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Joins the army’s Directorate of Selection of Personnel as a captain
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9 Nov 1942
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Publication of Darkness Falls from the Air, Balchin’s first genuinely successful novel
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31 Dec 1942
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Joins the army’s Directorate of Biological Research and is promoted to lieutenant-colonel
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6 Dec 1943
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Publication of The Small Back Room, Balchin’s most successful novel
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9 Dec 1943
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Transferred to the department of the Scientific Adviser to the Army Council
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26 Dec 1944
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Birth of Freja, Balchin’s third daughter
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7 May 1945
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Appointed Deputy Scientific Adviser to the Army Council with the rank of brigadier
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Sept 1945
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Publication of Mine Own Executioner, Balchin’s second most successful novel
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21 Feb 1949
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UK release of the famous Powell and Pressburger film of The Small Back Room
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30 Mar 1951
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Balchin divorces Elisabeth
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June 1951
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Publication of A Way Through the Wood, Balchin’s fictional response to the collapse of his marriage
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5 Feb 1953
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Balchin marries Yovanka Zorana Tomich
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5 Sept 1955
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Publication of The Fall of the Sparrow, Balchin’s last great novel
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27 Dec 1955
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Birth of Charles, Balchin’s first son
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11 July 1957
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Awarded BAFTA for ‘Best British Screenplay’ for his script for The Man Who Never Was
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1959
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Writes three draft screenplays for the Richard Burton/Liz Taylor version of Cleopatra
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24 May 1962
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Birth of Cassandra, Balchin’s first daughter with Yovanka
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Oct 1967
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Publication of Kings of Infinite Space, Balchin’s final novel
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17 May 1970
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Balchin dies after a heart attack at the Greenaway Nursing Home in Hampstead
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Apr 1974
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Clive James writes long critical appraisal of Balchin in The New Review
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Oct 2005
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UK release of Separate Lies, Julian Fellowes’ film adaptation of A Way Through the Wood
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Apr 2008
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BBC Radio 4 broadcast ‘The Small Back Room Boy’, a documentary about Balchin
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1 Sept 2015
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Publication of His Own Executioner: The Life of Nigel Balchin by Derek Collett, the first biography of Balchin. This is followed by a revised edition in 2021 and, between 2021 and 2023, five reissued novels (Seen Dimly Before Dawn, Simple Life, In the Absence of Mrs Petersen, Sundry Creditors and Mine Own Executioner) that together constitute The Nigel Balchin Collection.
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