Nell Dunn

Last updated

Nell Dunn
BornNell Mary Dunn
(1936-06-09) 9 June 1936 (age 87)
London, England
Occupation
  • Playwright
  • novelist
  • screenwriter
Notable works Up the Junction (1963) Steaming (1981)
Spouse
(m. 1957;div. 1979)
Children3
Parents Philip Gordon Dunn, 2nd Baronet Dunn (father)
Relatives Serena Rothschild (sister)
James Hamet Dunn (paternal grandfather)
James St Clair-Erskine, 5th Earl of Rosslyn (maternal grandfather)

Nell Mary Dunn (born 9 June 1936 [1] ) is an English playwright, screenwriter and author. She is known especially for a volume of short stories, Up the Junction , and a novel, Poor Cow .

Contents

Early years

Dunn was born in London the second daughter of Baronet Sir Philip Dunn, the son of Baronet James Hamet Dunn, she is the maternal granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, She was educated at a convent up to the age of 14. She and her older sister Serena were evacuated to America during the Second World War. Her parents divorced in 1944. [1]

Her father did not believe his daughters needed qualifications. As a result, she has never passed an exam in her life. She only learnt to read at nine years old. Dunn said, "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." [2]

Despite her upper-class background, Dunn moved in 1959 to Battersea, made friends there and worked for a time in a confectionery factory. This milieu inspired much of what Dunn would later write. [3] She attended the Courtauld Institute of Art. [4]

Career

After her marriage to Jeremy Sandford in 1957, they gave up their smart Chelsea home and went to live in unfashionable Battersea where they joined and observed the lower strata of society. From this experience he published the play Cathy Come Home in 1963, and she wrote Up the Junction .

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 for its vibrant, realistic and non-judgemental portrait of its working-class protagonists. It was adapted for television by Dunn, with Ken Loach, for The Wednesday Play series, directed by Loach and broadcast in November 1965. A cinema film version was released in 1968. [5]

Talking to Women (1965) was a collection of interviews with nine friends, "from society heiresses to factory workers (Dunn herself was both)". [6] The interviewees included Edna O’Brien, Pauline Boty, Ann Quin and Paddy Kitchen. [6] Dunn's first novel, Poor Cow (1967) was made into a film in the same year, starring Carol White and Terence Stamp, under Loach's direction.

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

She won the 1982 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Steaming. [7]

Personal life

Dunn was married to writer Jeremy Sandford from 1957 [3] to 1979, and they had three sons. For some time the family lived on a small hill farm called Wern Watkin, outside Crickhowell in South Wales. Their farm is mentioned in a 2000 biography by their neighbour, the young Carlo Gébler, son of novelist Edna O'Brien. [8]

She became a patron of Dignity in Dying after her partner, Dan Oestreicher, died of lung cancer.[ citation needed ]

Works

Plays

Film scripts

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edna O'Brien</span> Irish writer

Josephine Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists, she was honoured with the title Saoi in 2015 and the biennial "UK and Ireland Nobel" David Cohen Prize in 2019, whilst France made her Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clapham Common</span> Triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England

Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is 220 acres of green space, with three ponds and a Victorian bandstand. It is overlooked by large Georgian and Victorian mansions and nearby Clapham Old Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret O'Brien</span> American film, television and stage actress

Angela Maxine O'Brien is an American actress. Beginning a prolific career in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at age four, O'Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and was honored with a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944. In her later career, she has appeared on television, on stage, and in supporting film roles.

<i>Up the Junction</i>

Up the Junction is a 1963 collection of short stories by Nell Dunn that depicts contemporary life in the industrial slums of Battersea and Clapham Junction.

<i>The Wednesday Play</i> British television series

The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathy Come Home</span> 1966 BBC television play

"Cathy Come Home" is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 Radio Times readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" and a 2000 industry poll rated it as the second-best British television programme ever made. Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16 November 1966 on BBC1. The play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which often tackled social issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Up the Junction (song)</span> 1979 single by Squeeze

"Up the Junction" was the third single released from Squeeze's second album, Cool for Cats. Sung by Glenn Tilbrook, it is one of the band's most popular and well-remembered songs, and reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, the same position as its predecessor, "Cool for Cats".

<i>Poor Cow</i> 1967 British film directed by Ken Loach

Poor Cow is a 1967 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Ken Loach and based on Nell Dunn's 1967 novel of the same name. It was Ken Loach's first feature film, after a series of TV productions. The film was re-released in the UK in 2016.

Christopher Jeremy Sandford was an English television screenwriter who came to prominence in 1966 with Cathy Come Home, his controversial entry in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was directed by Ken Loach. Later, in 1971, he wrote another successful one-off, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, for The Wednesday Play's successor series Play for Today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol White</span> British actress (1943–1991)

Carole Joan White was an English actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queenie Watts</span> British actress

Queenie Watts was an English actress of film and television, as well as an occasional singer. She was noted for her broad cockney accent.

<i>Up the Junction</i> (film) 1968 British film by Peter Collinson

Up the Junction is a 1968 British "kitchen sink" drama film, directed by Peter Collinson and starring Dennis Waterman, Suzy Kendall, Adrienne Posta, Maureen Lipman and Liz Fraser. It is based on the 1963 book of the same name by Nell Dunn and was adapted by Roger Smith. The soundtrack was by Manfred Mann. The film followed Ken Loach's BBC TV adaptation of 1965, but returned to the original book. It generated less controversy and impact than the Loach version.

Ernest Gébler, sometimes credited as Ernie Gebler, was an Irish writer of Czech origin. He was a member of Aosdána.

Virginia Ironside is a British journalist, agony aunt and author. Born in London, she is the daughter of Christopher Ironside, painter and coin designer, and Janey Ironside who was the first professor of fashion design at the Royal College of Art. She was the niece of the painter and designer Robin Ironside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson</span> American writer, poet, traveler, and editor

Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson was an American writer, poet, traveler, and editor. She was a lifelong friend and sister-in-law of poet Emily Dickinson.

Up the Junction (<i>The Wednesday Play</i>) 4th episode of the 3rd season of The Wednesday Play

"Up the Junction" is an episode of the BBC anthology drama series The Wednesday Play directed by Ken Loach and produced by James MacTaggart. It was first broadcast on 3 November 1965 on BBC 1. The play was adapted by Nell Dunn and (uncredited) Ken Loach from Dunn's short story collection of the same name. It tells the stories of three young women living in North Battersea and Clapham and, to a lesser degree, their boyfriends.

<i>Poor Cow</i> (novel) 1967 novel by Nell Dunn

Poor Cow is the first full-length novel by Nell Dunn, first published in 1967 by MacGibbon & Kee. The novel is a study of a working-class girl from the East End of London, struggling through the swinging sixties after making one bad decision too many. The novel was adapted for film in the same year of publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Loach</span> British filmmaker (born 1936)

Kenneth Charles Loach is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialism are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty, homelessness, and labour rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca O'Brien</span>

Rebecca O'Brien is a BAFTA-winning film producer, known especially for her work with Ken Loach. O'Brien was born in London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nell Trent</span> Fictional character in The Old Curiosity Shop

Nell Trent, also referred to as Little Nell, is a fictional character in the 1841 novel The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. The novel's main character, she is portrayed as infallibly good and virginal. An orphan, she leads her grandfather on their journey to save them from misery but gradually becomes weaker throughout the journey, and although she finds a home with the help of a schoolmaster, she sickens and dies before her friends in London find her. Her death has been described as "the apotheosis of Victorian sentimentality."

References

  1. 1 2 Brayfield, Celia (25 July 2019). Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists: Shelagh Delaney • Edna O'Brien • Lynne Reid-Banks • Charlotte Bingham • Nell Dunn • Virginia Ironside • Margaret Forster. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-4482-1751-9.
  2. "Nell Dunn: I never used to think about death, until I was 50" . The Independent. 13 October 2013. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 Ironside, Virginia (16 May 2003). "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. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  4. "Our Alumni". The Courtauld Institute of Art. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  5. IMDB. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  6. 1 2 Kate Webb, Something to say for herself: hearing and recording female voices, Times Literary Supplement , 17 July 2018.
  7. "Englishwoman Wins Blackburn Play Prize". The New York Times. 23 February 1982. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  8. Gébler, Carlo (2000). Father and I: A Memoir. Little, Brown. ISBN   9781405529341 . Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  9. Lubin Odana (31 January 1968). "Poor Cow (1967)". IMDb. Retrieved 8 May 2015.