Simon Gray | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Simon James Holliday Gray 21 October 1936 Hayling Island, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 7 August 2008 (aged 71) London, England |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, novelist academic (1965–1985) |
| Education | Westminster School |
| Alma mater | Dalhousie University (BA) Trinity College, Cambridge (BA) |
| Period | 1963–2008 |
| Genre | Drama, screenplay, memoir, novel |
| Notable works | Butley, Quartermaine's Terms, Otherwise Engaged, The Smoking Diaries |
| Spouse | Beryl Kevern
(m. 1965; div. 1997)Victoria Katherine Rothschild
(m. 1997) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| simongray | |
 Literature portal | |
Simon James Holliday Gray CBE FRSL (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008)[1] was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years.[2][3] While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to five published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries.[4][5][6]
- ^ Andrew Mortimer and Anthony Wilks, comp. "The Official Simon Gray Website: About". Archived from the original (Web) on 30 May 2010. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ^ Lynn Barber (4 April 2004). "I wrote a lot of my plays drunk. It liberated me" (Web). Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
Simon Gray is a prolific playwright who gets up at lunchtime; an ex alcoholic who refuses to stop smoking; a pessimist who has just published his very funny diaries. He talks about adultery, self-hate and drinking four bottles of champagne a day.
- ^ Tony Gould (10 August 2008). "Appreciation: Simon Gray, 1936–2008: Smoker, Gambler, Teacher and Writer with an Enviable Gift for Friendship" (Web). Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
The playwright and diarist Simon Gray died on Wednesday. Here his close friend, the writer Tony Gould, remembers a man to whom literature was the stuff of life, while below other literary figures pay tribute to his memory.
- ^ Billington, Michael (7 August 2008). "Remembering Simon Gray" (Web). Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Bruce Weber (8 August 2008). "Simon Gray, playwright, Dies at 71: Aimed Wit at Intellectuals, and Himself" (Web). New York Times, Obituary. New York Times Company. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
- ^ Gardner, Lyn (7 August 2008). "Obituary : Simon Gray : Playwright, Diarist and Novelist Who Bridged the Gulf between Intellectual and Popular Drama" (Web). The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2009. (Gardner and other sources cite the date of Gray's death as 6 August 2008; some sources, including the obituary by Billington and the book review by Scurr, give the day of Gray's death as 7 August 2008.)