Penelope Gilliatt

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Penelope Gilliatt (née Penelope Ann Douglass Conner, March 25, 1932 – May 9, 1993) was an English novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and film critic.

She was born in London. Her father, Cyril Conner, was originally a barrister, while her mother was Marie Stephanie Douglass. Both came from Newcastle upon Tyne. Penelope Gilliatt herself was brought up in Northumberland, where her father was director of the BBC in the North East from 1938-41. and she retained a lifelong love of the Roman Wall country. John Osborne her husband once said in answer to her phone-call, that he was giving his all 'for the burghers of Geordieland, your compatriots.'

Her novel Mortal Matters (1983), much concerned with shipbuilding and suffragettes, is largely set in Northumberland and Newcastle. There are several loving pages devoted to Hexham, and numerous mentions of Newcastle locations. She celebrates the achievements of the North East, including the famous vessels Mauretania and Charles Parsons'Turbinia. Gilliatt also praises the Torrens, the Sunderland-built ship on which Joseph Conrad served for two years from 1891.

The house Braw Fell is clearly Cragside, Lord Armstrong's Northumberland mansion, and the master, Sir William Douglass, is obviously modelled on Lord Armstrong himself. Douglass of course was the family name of Penelope’s mother, Mary.

Penelope Gillliatt is perhaps best known for writing the screenplay for Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). She won several prestigious Best Screenplay awards for the film, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Writers Guild of America, USA, and Writers' Guild of Great Britain. The screenplay was also nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA.

Gilliatt wrote several novels, including One by One (1965) and A State of Change (1967). Her short stories were collected in Nobody's Business (1972).

As a film critic, Gilliatt wrote numerous reviews for The Observer before she began a column that ran for years in The New Yorker, in which she alternated for six month intervals with Pauline Kael as that publication's chief film reviewer. Gilliatt's column ran from late spring - early fall, and Kael's for the remainder of the year.

Gilliatt was married to playwright John Osborne from 1963 - 1968, giving him his only natural child — a daughter, Nolan (whom he later disowned). Her death was due to alcoholism.