Unsworth's first novel, "The Partnership", was published in 1966 when he was 36. "...in my earlier novels, especially the two written in the early '70s, "The Hide" and "Mooncranker's Gift", there was a baroque quality in the style, a density. The mood was grim, but the language was more figurative and more high-spirited. There was more delight in it, more self-indulgence, too. Among my earliest influences as a writer were the American novelists of the deep south, especially Eudora Welty, and some of that elated, grotesque comedy stayed with me." "Mooncranker's Gift" (1973) won the Heinemann Award. Other novels included "Stone Virgin" (1985) and "Losing Nelson" (1999). In addition to Eudora Welty, he counted William Faulkner and Carson McCullers as his major influences.