Fay Weldon, who wrote books like “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” in 1983, passed away at the age of 91. During her career, the author wrote more than 30 novels, as well as short story collections, TV movies and pieces of journalism.
Weldon was born in the United Kingdom, but grew up in New Zealand. In 1967 she wrote her first bookand both Praxis and Worst Fears were shortlisted for the Booker and Whitbread literature awards.
Weldon’s funny, cutting and mischievous stories about women’s lives and loves often drew on her own colorful and difficult personal life and relationships.
Author and screenwriter Fay Weldon has passed away “peacefully” at the age of 91.
Read here: https://t.co/EQzUn2TuoR pic.twitter.com/sGYC0GPY5A
— The Bookseller (@thebookseller) January 4, 2023
A family statement released by her agent said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist and playwright.”
“She passed away peacefully this morning, January 4, 2023.” Jenny Colgan, an author, was the first to pay tribute. She said Weldon was “Formidable, fierce and awesome.”
The Rev. Richard Coles, a broadcaster and author, said he was “so sorry” to hear about Weldon’s death. “I started out as an admirer of her fiction and eventually I took Holy Communion from her,” he tweeted.
Take a look at:
“She was great. May she rest in peace.” Weldon began his career as an advertising copywriter. He came up with famous slogans like “Go work on an egg” before becoming known as a novelist and screenwriter.
She worked for radio and TV, and in 1971 she wrote the first episode of the show Upstairs, Downstairs. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil was about a woman named Ruth Patchett.
When she found out that her husband was having an affair with an elegant novelist, she wanted to take revenge. It was turned into a BBC TV show with Dennis Waterman, Patricia Hodge and Miriam Margolyes as the main characters. In the US, Meryl Streep turned it into a movie called She Devil.
Weldon’s other best-known work is The Cloning of Joanna May, which came out in 1989 and was also turned into a TV show starring Hodge, Brian Cox, and Peter Capaldi.
She said she chose to write about women who were often ignored or given little attention in the media. Feminism was a large part of much of Weldon’s work, even though her views on the subject made it difficult for her to relate to feminism.
These two must be wreaking havoc somewhere. Brilliant women, great supporters of writers. #fayweldon #hilariouscloak pic.twitter.com/BxHXvXj9Ng
— Nell Leyshon (@NellLeyshon) January 4, 2023
Her sixth book, Praxis, won the Booker Prize in 1979. The Times critic Clare Clark recently called it her best work and said the author wrote it “discouraging women from just about any comforting myth they might cling to, by firing savage truths as if it were a novelist’s job to break three taboos before breakfast.”
Weldon told the guard in 2006: “Praxis was the book that earned my reputation, but only because I went through the original version and got all the jokes out did everyone take it seriously. I have not done that with any other book and since then I have been considered rather frivolous in some circles.”
In 1983, the writer was chosen to head the jury for the Booker Prize. At that event, she gave a speech about how badly publishers treated their writers. This speech so upset a publisher that he walked over and punched her agent.
In 1996, Worst Fears earned her a Whitbread nomination. In that movie, an actress has to face her fear that her husband will cheat on her.
I’m so sorry to see the news of it #FayWeldon. I had the great privilege of working on her recent fiction. She was rather wonderful, a satirical genius and a formidable writer – she never stopped. RIP Fay. pic.twitter.com/E5Wf0rNFu3
— Annabel Robinson (@AnnabelR0binson) January 4, 2023
Weldon also won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award that same year for a collection of short stories called Wicked Women. She also won the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize and in 2001 received the CBE.
In Death of a She-Devil, the sequel to The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, which she wrote in 2017, Ruth is now 84 years old and has created a world where “women triumph and men submit.”
Weldon also taught creative writing at the Universities of Bath Spa and Brunel… Just follow us on Lee Daily for more news like this.
