The writer, who became popular as one of the angry young men of British fiction, is hailed as one of the modern literary greats.
His novels included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, made into a film starring Tom Courtenay.
I had the honour and pleasure of interviewing Mr Sillitoe for the Nottingham Evening Post in the 1990s.
Contrary to what I had been warned, he was by no means a 'difficult' subject and was, in fact, kind and helpful to me in my quest for a good story as a junior reporter.
