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Author Fay Weldon, known for works including The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil and Praxis, has died aged 91.

The novelist, playwright and screenwriter’s body of work includes more than 30 novels – as well as short stories and plays written for television, radio and the stage including ITV’s popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs and the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

A family statement said: ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist and playwright. She died peacefully this morning January 4, 2023.’

The writer previously told her readers in a statement posted on her website that she had been admitted to hospital with a broken bone in her back and then with a stroke.

Author Fay Weldon has died aged 91

Author Fay Weldon has died aged 91

Fay Weldon pictured with her son Nick Weldon and grandson Felix Weldon in 1998

Fay Weldon pictured with her son Nick Weldon and grandson Felix Weldon in 1998

A family statement said: 'It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist and playwright. She died peacefully this morning January 4, 2023'

A family statement said: ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist and playwright. She died peacefully this morning January 4, 2023’

Author Jenny Colgan led tributes, describing Weldon as 'formidable, fierce and wonderful

Author Jenny Colgan led tributes, describing Weldon as ‘formidable, fierce and wonderful

Author Jenny Colgan led tributes, describing Weldon as ‘formidable, fierce and wonderful’. 

Born in Britain in September 1931, Weldon was brought up in New Zealand and returned to the UK as a child. She went on to read economics and psychology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and later received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 1990.

Weldon worked briefly for the Foreign Office in London and as a journalist before moving to work as an advertising copywriter.

She left this career to focus on her writing and published her first novel, The Fat Woman’s Joke, in 1967.

Alongside her prolific novel career, she also wrote children’s books, non-fiction books and newspaper articles.

She was also one of the writers on the popular drama series Upstairs, Downstairs which ran from 1971 to 1975, receiving an award from the Writers Guild of America for the show’s first episode.

Much of her fiction explores issues surrounding women’s relationships with men, children, parents and each other, including the novels Down Among The Women (1971) and Female Friends (1975).

Her 1978 novel Praxis was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction and she later chaired the judges’ panel for the prestigious award in 1983.

She published a memoir called Auto Da Fay in 2002 when she was 70.

Her most famous work, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, followed Ruth Patchett, a woman who sought revenge after discovering her husband has been having an affair with a novelist.

It later became a BBC series starring Miriam Margolyes, Dennis Waterman and Patricia Hodge. 

Weldon’s other best-known works included 1989’s The Cloning of Joanna May, which was also adapted for television and again starred Hodge, alongside Brian Cox and Peter Capaldi. 

Weldon was also a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University, retiring in 2021

Weldon was also a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University, retiring in 2021

Marjorie Wallace and Fay Weldon at the Serpentine Gallery in 2006

Marjorie Wallace and Fay Weldon at the Serpentine Gallery in 2006

She said she deliberately wrote about women who were often wronged or not featured in the media. 

Weldon once wrote:  ‘What drove me to feminism 50 years ago was the myth that men were the breadwinners, and women kept house and looked pretty. That myth finally exploded, and I helped to explode it.’ 

Weldon was also a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University, retiring in 2021.

After spending nine years teaching at the institution she was awarded Emeritus Professor status in recognition of her dedication to the university.

She was made a CBE for her services to literature in the New Year Honours list in 2001.

Weldon married for a third time in 1994, to the poet Nick Fox.

Her later books included an Edwardian-themed trilogy and a self-help book for aspiring novelists, Why Will No-One Publish My Novel? (2018).

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