Nell Dunn

Nell Dunn
Born (1936-06-09) 9 June 1936
London, England
Occupation Playwright, novelist, screenwriter
Nationality United Kingdom
Spouse Jeremy Sandford (1957–1979)
Information
Notable work(s)

Up the Junction (1963)

Steaming (1981)

Nell Mary Dunn (born 9 June 1936) is an English playwright, screenwriter, and author.

Biography

Early years

The daughter of Sir Philip Dunn and the maternal granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn – the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo, Dunn was a descendant of Charles II and Nell Gwyn. She was born in London and educated at a convent, which she left at the age of fourteen. "Nell's father didn't believe that his daughters needed any qualifications, and as a result Nell has never passed an exam in her life. She only learnt to read at nine years old and "whenever my father saw my appalling spelling, he would laugh. But it wasn't an unkind laugh. In his laugh there was the message, 'You are a completely original person, and everything you do has your own mark on it.' He wanted us all to be unique," she says. Although she came from an upper-class background, in 1959 Dunn moved to Battersea and made friends in the neighbourhood and worked for a time in a sweet factory. This world inspired much of what Dunn would later write. Dunn was married to writer Jeremy Sandford from 1957 to 1979; the couple had three sons. [1]

Career

Dunn came to notice with the publication of Up the Junction (1963), a series of short stories set in South London, some of which had already appeared in the New Statesman. The book, awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, was a controversial success at the time because of its vibrant, realistic and nonjudgmental portrait of the working class protagonists. It was adapted for television by Dunn (and Ken Loach) for The Wednesday Play series which was directed by Ken Loach and broadcast in November 1965. A cinema film version was released in 1968.

A collection of interviews, Talking to Women (1965), preceded the publication of her first novel Poor Cow in 1967. This was a bestseller and also achieved a succès de scandale. Poor Cow was made into a film starring Carol White and Terence Stamp, under Loach's direction.

Her later adult books are Grandmothers (1991) and My Silver Shoes (1996). Dunn's play Steaming was produced in 1981 and a television film Every Breath You Take, was transmitted in 1987. She has also written Sisters, a film script commissioned by the BBC.

She won the 1982 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Personal life

Dunn became a Patron of Dignity in Dying after her partner, Dan Oestreicher, died of lung cancer.

Works

Plays

Film script

References

  1. ↑ Ironside, Virginia. "Nell Dunn: I never used to think about death, until I was 50. I was never going to die. I was immortal. But now I think about death every day". The Independent. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Lubin Odana (31 January 1968). "Poor Cow (1967)". IMDb. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
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