Winner of the inaugural Booker Prize in 1969. It was 1956 and he was in Port Said. About these two facts Townrow was reasonably certain. He had been summoned there, to Egypt, by the widow of his deceased friend, Elie Khoury. Having been found dead in the street, she is convinced he was murdered, but nobody seems to agree with her. What of Leah Strauss, the mistress? And of the invading British paratroops? Only an Englishman, surely, would take for granted that the British would have behaved themselves. In this weirdly disorientating world, Townrow is forced towards a re-examination of the basic rules by which he has been living his life; and into a realization that he too may have something to answer for.

Percy Howard Newby CBE (1918.06.25 – 1997.09.06) 是一名英国小说家兼广播电台MD，他凭借小说《Something to Answer For》在1969年获得第一届布克奖。

1942年退役之后，纽比在开罗 King Fouad大学任教英国文学4年。

1946年，他的第一本小说《A Journey into the Interior》出版，他回到英格兰继续写作，同年获得 Atlantic Book Award,两年后获得 Somerset Maugham Prize.1947年,其作品 《The Spirit of Jem》 出版。

1949-1978年，他受雇于BBC，成为一个电台广播制作人，继而成为BBC Third Programme的管理者，负责人，最终成为BBC的总经理, 因此而获勋。