Married three times and with four children, Weldon was a self-declared feminist. Her work features what she described as "overweight, plain women". She said there were many reasons why she became a feminist, including the "appalling" lack of equal opportunities and the myth that women were supported by male relatives.
Early life
Weldon was born Franklin Birkinshaw to a literary family in Birmingham, England, on 22 September 1931.[1] Her maternal grandfather, Edgar Jepson (1863–1938), her uncle Selwyn Jepson and her mother Margaret Jepson wrote novels (the latter sometimes under the nom de plume Pearl Bellairs, from the name of a character in Aldous Huxley's short story "Farcical History of Richard Greenow").[2]
Weldon grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand, where her father, Frank Thornton Birkinshaw, worked as a doctor.[1][3] In 1936, when she was five, her parents agreed to separate, later divorcing (1940). She and her sister Jane spent the summers with her father, first in Coromandel, later in Auckland. She attended Christchurch Girls' High School for two years from 1944.[4] Weldon described herself as a "plump, cheerful child", stating in a blog post that began as an unpublished article for the Daily Mail: "I was born large, blonde and big-boned into a family of small beautiful women. My mother thought it was unlikely that anyone would marry me, and therefore I would have to pass exams, earn my own living and make my own way in the world. Or that’s what I thought she thought." She goes on to explain how this view of herself affected her later writing career. "I’d be happier to have been seen as a skinny, feisty child, a slim and serious adult, and a handsome octogenarian with an interesting literary past. But that was not to be, despite a lifetime of diets. It was however a state of affairs which made me write a good few novels with overweight, plain women as their heroines. I’ve always been on their side – they are the unseen majority."[5]
In September 1946, when she was 15, Weldon returned to England with her mother and sister. She recalled: "I was a literary groupie from the antipodes...Not that I had any intention of being a writer at the time – too much like hard work. All I wanted was to get married and have babies."[6] She did not see her father again before his death in 1949.[7]
In England Weldon won a scholarship to the all-girls South Hampstead High School, before going on to study Psychology and Economics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Later she recalled attending classes with the moral philosopher Malcolm Knox, who "spoke exclusively to the male students, maintaining that women were incapable of moral judgement or objectivity."[8] She completed her Master of Arts in 1952 and moved to London, where she worked as a clerk at the Foreign Office for a salary of £6 a week.[9]
Early career
Weldon had temporary jobs as a waitress and hospital ward orderly before working as a clerk for the Foreign Office, where she wrote pamphlets to be dropped in Eastern Europe as part of the Cold War. She had to leave this job after she became pregnant. Later she took a job with Crawford's Advertising Agency, where she worked with the writer Elizabeth Smart,[10] and where she could earn enough to support herself and her young son (Nicolas).
As head of copywriting at Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, she was responsible for publicising (but not originating) the phrase "Go to work on an egg". She coined the slogan "Vodka gets you drunker quicker", saying in a Guardian interview: "It just seemed ... to be obvious that people who wanted to get drunk fast needed to know this." Her bosses disagreed and suppressed it.[11]
Literary career
Writing career
Appearing with Gerard Casey on British television discussion programme After Dark in 1997
In 1963 Weldon began writing for radio and television. Four years later her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke, was published. "When I submitted my first novel in 1966 it was accepted without demur. I thought this was because I was a wonderful writer, But it wasn't. It was because I had learned to have nothing turned down."[12] She subsequently built a successful and prolific career, publishing over thirty novels, collections of short stories, films for television, newspaper and magazine articles and becoming a well-known face and voice on the BBC. She described herself as a "writeaholic".[13]
Her novel The Hearts and Lives of Men was written and published in serial form, appearing in the British magazine Woman between 1 February and 15 November 1986. She told The New York Times: "It was written as the Dickens novels were written....You made it up as you went along, confined by the structure of the story, which is going to go on for you don't know how long—but you have to be able to bring it to an end with three weeks' warning."[15]
In 1993, her play Mr Director was produced at the Orange Tree Theatre in London. Its subject was the treatment of juveniles in a children's home. [16]
In 2000, Weldon's novel The Bulgari Connection became notorious for its product placement, naming the jewellers not only in the title but another 34 times, while a minimum of 12 times was stipulated in the £18,000 contract.
Weldon was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University in West London in 2006: "A great writer needs a certain personality and a natural talent for language, but there is a great deal that can be taught – how to put words together quickly and efficiently to make a point, how to be graceful and eloquent, how to convey emotion, how to build up tension, and how to create alternative worlds." In 2012 Weldon was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where she shared an office with Professor Maggie Gee.[19]
A self-declared feminist, Weldon's work features what she described as "overweight, plain women" – as she deliberately sought, she said, to write about and give a voice to women who are often overlooked or not featured in the media. She said there were many reasons why she became a feminist, including "appalling" lack of equal opportunities and the myth that women were supported by male relatives. "What drove me to feminism fifty years ago was the myth that men were the breadwinners and women kept house and looked pretty."[20] She noted that the turning point for her, however, was the outright sexism in the media industry at that time, such as when she attended a casting session of a TV drama she had written and watched the male director and producer "...cast the lead by flicking through Spotlight and just choosing the girl they both most fancied. And they were amazed when I objected: female skill, talent, experience, intelligence meant nothing to them".[5]
However, some of Weldon's commentary drew controversy. In a 1998 interview for the Radio Times, Weldon stated that rape "isn't the worst thing that can happen to a woman if you're safe, alive and unmarked after the event."[21] She was roundly condemned by groups representing women victims of rape and violence.[22] In a 2017 interview on BBC Two's Newsnight, she expressed ambivalence about the successes of feminism. Social change had been enormous, "thanks to feminism", but it wasn't all wonderful: "We saw a world of young, healthy, intelligent, striving women. And we didn't really, honestly, take much notice of those who were not like us."[23]
Personal life and death
In 1953, while working at the Foreign Office, Weldon became pregnant by musician Colyn Davies whom she met when he was moonlighting as a doorman. She said that while she wanted the child (son Nicolas), she decided she did not want the father. In 1957, tired of struggling to support herself as a single mother, she married Ronald Bateman, a headmaster 25 years her senior.[24][25] They lived together in Acton, London, for two years, until the marriage ended.[24]
In 1961, aged 29, Weldon met her second husband, Ron Weldon, a jazz musician and antiques dealer.[26] They married in 1963 when Fay was pregnant with her second son Dan (born that same year). They lived in East Compton, Somerset, later having two more sons, Tom (1970) and Sam (1977).[citation needed] It was while she was pregnant with Dan that Weldon began writing for radio and television. The couple visited therapists regularly and in 1992 Ron left Fay for his astrological therapist, who had told him that the couple's astrological signs were incompatible.[24] They began divorce proceedings, although Ron died in 1994, just eight hours before the divorce was finalised.[27]
In 1994 Weldon married Nick Fox, a poet who was also her manager,[28] but instigated divorce proceedings in 2020.[29]
Weldon died at a care home in Northampton, England, on 4 January 2023, at the age of 91.[1][31] She was survived by her sons as well as twelve grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.[32]
Awards
Writers' Guild Award for "On Trial", the pilot of the original TV programme Upstairs Downstairs (1973)
The Booker Prize Best Novel nominee (1979) for Praxis
Guinness, Molly (12 September 2009). "Family album". The Spectator. 311 (9446): 37–38. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
Stuart Jeffries, "Lie back and think of Jesus", The Guardian, 5 September 2006. Interview and review of What Makes Women Happy. Weldon describes her near-death experience and spiritual journey from atheism to belief in God.
Fay Weldon, "My left knee", Saga Magazine, 10 October 2011. Weldon writes candidly about having her knee replaced at 80, and her fears prior to the operation.
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