E. M. Forster was a humanist who tried to promote equality among races, classes, and nationalities through his masterpiece, A Passage to India. Set against the backdrop of the Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s, the novel highlights racial tensions and the oppressive prejudices of the colonising British towards the indigenous population. Based once more on his personal experiences, the novel also highlights the difficulties at the time of an Englishman befriending an Indian. For more information and a good discussion on the novels, The Literature Network is a good place to start.

The post-graduate life of Edward Morgan Forster was spent travelling round Italy and Greece with the woman who dominated his life - his mother. The experience gave him the inspiration for one of his better known and earliest novels, A Room With A View. Never one to shirk major issues, Forster tackled the subject of money versus culture in Howard’s End, a story of two families, one interested in business, one in culture. He went on to confront homosexuality in the novel Maurice (said to detail his unrequited love for a male pupil in India), which underwent continual revision throughout his life, and was published posthumously. For synopses of all his novels, character lists and interpretations, there is a German site written in excellent English, Aspects of E. M. Forster, which provides a lot of information.

For the views of his official biographer, friends and critics, the Sky Arts series Great Writers profiles Forster this week. Showing today and tomorrow (Mon 22 Oct 2007 1:05pm, Tue 23 Oct 2007 9:05am), the programme includes some previously unheard views and is well worth checking out.