Goodbye Fay Weldon

Sad news last week that Fay Weldon had died aged 91.

Fay wrote some 30 novels (her first in 1967) plus drama, plays and short fiction. Her 6th novel Praxis was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She also worked an advertising copywriter and is credited with the famous ‘Go to work on an egg’ campaign slogan.

Perhaps her best known work is ‘The Life and Loves of a She-Devil’ published in 1983 – dramatised on BBC TV in 1986 and later by Hollywood starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr. Her other credits include ITV’s Upstairs Downstairs and an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC. She was well known for her sharp dialogue and scathing wit.

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Hilary Mantel dies aged 70

Very sad news that Man Booker Prize winning author Dame Hilary Mantel has died aged 70, according to her publisher. Her Wolf Hall trilogy, charting the fortunes of Thomas Cromwell, has been serialised by the BBC.

Over the years she has produced numerous books, historical fiction, reviewed films, books and papers, for newspapers and TV. The sequel to ‘Wolf Hall’, ‘Bringing Up the Bodies‘ won her the 2012 Costa Book of the Year and the 2012 Booker Prize. She became the first British writer and the first woman to win the Booker more than once. Her books were adapted into plays by the RSC and produced as a mini-series by BBC. The final book The Mirror & the Light was published in 2020.

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Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

Very saddened to learn of the passing of the Queen & the end of the second Elizabethan age. My condolences to all her family.

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