Fay Weldon

Fay Weldon

Weldon at the Copenhagen Book Fair in 2008
Weldon at the Copenhagen Book Fair in 2008
BornFranklin Birkinshaw
(1931-09-22)22 September 1931
Birmingham, England
Died4 January 2023(2023-01-04) (aged 91)
Northampton, England
Occupation
  • Author
  • essayist
  • playwright
Period1963–2018
Notable worksPuffball (1980)
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983)
The Cloning of Joanna May (1989)
Wicked Women (1995)
The Bulgari Connection
(2000)
Spouse
Ronald Bateman
(m. 1957; div. 1959)
Ron Weldon
(m. 1963; died 1994)
Nick Fox
(m. 1994; sep. 2020)
Children4
ParentsMargaret Jepson (mother)
RelativesSelwyn Jepson (uncle)
Edgar Jepson (grandfather)
Alan Birkinshaw (half-brother)

Fay Weldon CBE FRSL (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright.

Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including Puffball (1980), The Cloning of Joanna May (1989), Wicked Women (1995) and The Bulgari Connection (2000), but was most well-known as the writer of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) which was televised by the BBC in 1986.

Married three times and with four children, Weldon was a 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.