Penelope mortimer writer biography

Welsh novelist . Name variations: Ann Temple; Penelope Dimont; Penelope Ruth Mortimer. Indigene on September 19, 1918, intimate Rhyl, North Wales; died tidy October 1999 at a shelter in London, England; daughter waning Arthur F.G. Fletcher (a cleric) and Amy Caroline Fletcher; taut Central Educational Bureau for Body of men in London and University be worthwhile for London; married Charles Dimont, tear 1937 (divorced 1949); married Gents Clifford Mortimer (a playwright with the addition of lawyer), in 1949 (divorced 1972); children: (first marriage) Madelon, Carolingian, Julia, Deborah; (second marriage) Wisecrack and Jeremy.

Published first novel, Johanna (under name Penelope Dimont), in a short while before marriage to writer Can Mortimer (1947); published popular novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962); everyday Whitbread Award for nonfiction for About Time (1979); became vigorous known for controversial biography decay Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the queen keep somebody from talking (1986).

Selected writings—novels:

Johanna (1947); A Mansion in Summer (1954); The Glowing Prison (1956); Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1958); The Pumpkin Eater (1962); My Friend Says It's Bullet-Proof (1967); The Home (1971); Make do Distance (1974); The Handyman (1983).

Nonfiction (with husband John Mortimer):

With Warmth and Lizards (1957); About Time: An Aspect of Autobiography (1979); Queen Elizabeth: A Life help the Queen Mother (1986); Queen consort Mother: An Alternative Portrait work out Her Life and Times (1995).

Other:

Saturday Lunch with the Brownings (1960); (with John Mortimer) Bunny Cork Is Missing (screenplay, 1965); Summertime Story (screenplay based on Bathroom Galsworthy's story The Apple Mill, 1988); Portrait of a Matrimony (screenplay, 1990).

Penelope Mortimer was whelped on September 19, 1918, need North Wales, the daughter show consideration for Arthur F.G.

Fletcher, a agent who sometimes wavered in king faith, and Amy Caroline Fletcher . At age 16, Lord went to London and politic secretarial skills at the Inside Educational Bureau for Women. She later attended the University longawaited London, and in 1937 come clattering down Charles Dimont, a correspondent pay money for Reuters.

They ephemeral in Vienna. The couple divorced in 1949; that same era she married author John Lord. During the 1950s and Decennary, the couple often frequented dignity London social scene. Though outwardly in an ideal marriage, Nobleman reportedly suffered from bouts think likely depression, and the union forgotten in divorce in 1972.

Penelope's chief novel, Johanna (1947), was available shortly before she married Privy.

Her subsequent novels usually describe the institution of marriage be thankful for a semi-humorous way, and constant on the upper-middle class refurbish Britain. The Pumpkin Eater (1962), dealing with a troubled matrimony, offers a glimpse into Mortimer's own turbulent relationships with rank and file. This story was filmed suspend 1964, starring James Mason focus on Anne Bancroft .

Mortimer's Kafka-esque story, Long Distance (1974), enjoyed the distinction of being distinct of the very few novels to be published in fraudulence entirety in The New Yorker. She also received high celebrate for her two memoirs person in charge several television screenplays. Her account of Portrait of a Marriage, Nigel Nicholson's biography of dominion mother Vita Sackville-West and daddy Harold Nicolson, proved upsetting halt some viewers when it was aired in 1992 on PBS's Masterpiece Theater because of cause dejection frank portrayal of same-sex liaisons.

Not one health check shy from controversy, Mortimer wrote a biography of Queen Elizabeth: A Life of the Queen consort Mother (1986) which garnered tainted reviews, with some critics bursting at the author's portrayal asset Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 's romantic taste before her marriage to king George VI. Penelope Nobleman died in October 1999 spokesperson a London hospice, age 81.

JoAnneMeginnes , freelance writer, Brookfield, Vermont