dream when he penned the libretto to Randolph Peters' opera: The Golden Ass, based on The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, just like that written by one of the characters in Davies's 1958 A Mixture of Frailties. The opera was performed by the Canadian Opera Company at the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, in April 1999, several years after Davies's death. In its obituary, The Times wrote: "Davies encompassed all the great elements of life ... His novels combined deep seriousness and psychological inquiry with fantasy and exuberant mirth." He remained close friends with John Kenneth Galbraith, attending Galbraith's eighty-fifth birthday party in Boston in 1993, and became so close a friend and colleague of the American novelist John Irving that Irving gave one of the scripture readings at Davies's funeral in the chapel of Trinity College, Toronto. He also wrote in support of Salman Rushdie when the latter was threatened by a fatwā from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in reaction to supposed anti-Islam expression in his novel The Satanic Verses. Personal life Davies was married to Brenda Ethel Davies (1917–2013) in 1940 and survived by four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren from his three daughters Miranda Davies, Rosamond Bailey and author Jennifer Surridge. Davies never learned to drive. His wife Brenda routinely drove him to events and other excursions. Awards and recognition Won the Dominion Drama Festival Award for best Canadian play in 1948 for Eros at Breakfast. Won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1955 for Leaven of Malice. Won the Lorne Pierce Medal for his literary achievements in 1961. Won the Governor-General's Literary Award in the English language fiction category in 1972 for The Manticore. Short-listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1986 for What's Bred in the Bone. Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Oxford, 1991. First Canadian to become an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Companion of the Order of Canada. Park in Toronto named after him in 2007. Works Novels The Salterton Trilogy Tempest-Tost (1951) Leaven of Malice (1954) A Mixture of Frailties (1958) The Deptford Trilogy Fifth Business (1970) The Manticore (1972) World of Wonders (1975) The Cornish Trilogy The Rebel Angels (1981) What's Bred in the Bone (1985) The Lyre of Orpheus (1988) The "Toronto Trilogy" (incomplete) Murther and Walking Spirits (1991) The Cunning Man (1994) Essays Fictional essays The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947)