The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, published in 1983, was one of writer Fay Weldon’s best-known works. She passed away at age 91.
Throughout her career, the author released more than 30 books along with collections of short stories, television movies, and journalism.
Weldon was raised in New Zealand despite being born in the UK
She released her debut book in 1967, and for her novels Praxis and Worst Fears, she was later shortlisted for the Booker and Whitbread literature prizes.
Weldon frequently took inspiration from her own colorful and chaotic personal life and relationships in her humorous, caustic, and naughty tales about the lives and loves of women.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist, and dramatist, according to a family statement provided by her agent.
She passed away quietly on January 4, 2023, this morning.
Leading the tributes, author Jenny Colgan praised Weldon as “formidable, furious, and magnificent.”
She was described as “a magnificent woman” by her fellow author Joanne Harris, and by TV host Peter Purves as a “brilliant writer whose work lighted up the 70s and 80s.”
Rev. Richard Coles, a broadcaster and novelist, expressed his “very sorry” upon learning of Weldon’s passing.
He wrote,
“I began as a fan of her writing and I ended up receiving her Holy Communion.” She was incredible. Let her soul rest in peace.
Former Women’s Equality Party leader Sophie Walker described Weldon as “funny and dark and brilliant and aggressive and took not one single prisoner.”
Weldon disclosed on her website in late 2020 that she had experienced a stroke and broken a bone in her back, which meant that she had spent “most of the last year hospitalized.”
Before establishing himself as a novelist and playwright, Weldon worked as an advertising copywriter.
She created the inaugural episode of the Upstairs, Downstairs television series in 1971, and she has other radio and television credits to her name.
Ruth Patchett, a lady who sought vengeance after learning that her husband had been having an affair with a stylish novelist, was the subject of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.
Dennis Waterman, Patricia Hodge, and Julie T Wallace starred in the subsequent BBC TV series. It was adapted into a She Devil-titled Meryl Streep movie in the US.
The Cloning of Joanna May, a 1989 novel by Weldon that was also adapted for television and starring Hodge, Brian Cox, and Peter Capaldi, was one of his best-known works.
She claimed that she wrote on purpose about women who were frequently ignored or underrepresented in the media. Weldon’s work frequently featured feminism, but her relationship with the movement was tumultuous because of some of her opinions about it.
In 1979, she received a Booker nomination for Praxis, her sixth book. The author gave herself the goal of “disabusing women of just about every comforting notion they can cling to, shooting off nasty truths as though it is a novelist’s responsibility to breach three taboos before breakfast,” according to The Times critic Clare Clark, who recently acclaimed it as her best work.
Weldon stated to the Guardian in 2006: “Praxis was the book that made my career, but the only reason anyone took it seriously was that I went over the initial text and removed all the jokes. I avoided doing that again with any other book, and some people now view me as rather frivolous.
The author was appointed to preside over the Booker Prize jury in 1983. She spoke at that event about how poorly publishers handled their writers, which infuriated one publisher to the point that he approached and attacked her agent.
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