Stella Duffy | |
|---|---|
 Duffy in 2022 | |
| Born | Stella Frances Duffy Woolwich, London, UK |
| Occupation | Novelist, performer |
| Website | |
| stelladuffy | |
Stella Frances Silas Duffy OBE (born 1963) is a London-born writer and theatremaker. Born in London, she spent her childhood in New Zealand before returning to the UK.
Born in London in 1962 [1] to a New Zealand father and an English mother, Duffy is the youngest in a family of seven children. The family moved to New Zealand when Duffy was five, [2] and Duffy later returned to London. [3] She studied English literature and drama at Victoria University of Wellington. [2]
Duffy has written several literary novels, as well as crime novels in the Saz Martin series, published by Serpent's Tail.[ citation needed ]
In 2018 HarperCollins Publishers released Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy. The book was started by Marsh during World War II, but abandoned. Working with just the book's title, first three chapters and some notes—but no idea of the plot or motive of the villain—Duffy completed the novel, which has received widespread praise for its authenticity and seamless transition between the two authors' work. [4]
She has also written over sixty short stories, many plays, [5] as well as feature articles and reviews. With Lauren Henderson she co-edited the fiction anthology Tart Noir (2002). Her own short story in that collection, Martha Grace, was awarded the 2002 Crime Writers' Association's Macallan Short Story Dagger. [6] Singling out the Couples was shortlisted for the 1999 James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award. State of Happiness was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize, as was The Room of Lost Things in 2008. [7] [8]
She adapted the film script of State of Happiness for Fiesta Productions. The first novel in her Saz Martin series, Calendar Girl, was voted fifth equal in the 2007 international poll "The Big Gay Read". [9]
Duffy has written many plays, including The Book of Ruth (and Naomi) for the Bush Theatre's inaugural Sixty Six Books set of plays, an adaptation of Medea, Prime Resident , Immaculate Conceit, The Hand, and solo shows Breaststrokes and The Tedious Predictability of Falling in Love.[ citation needed ]
As a stage performer, she is[ when? ] an associate artist with Improbable, has been a member of the comedy improvisation company Spontaneous Combustion since 1988 and has guested with The Comedy Store Players. She has performed her solo show Breaststrokes ( Time Out and The Guardian Critic's Choice) in London, Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, York, and Amsterdam.[ citation needed ]
She directed Murder, Marple and Me for the Gilded Balloon (Edinburgh 2012 and tour 2013), Cell Sell for the National Youth Theatre at the Soho Theatre; Kikia te Poa (Matthew J. Saville [10] ), Precious Things (company devised) at the Pacific Playhouse, Skin Tight (Gary Henderson (playwright)) at the Pleasance Islington and Riverside Studios, My Inner Orc at the Pleasance, TaniwhaThames at OvalHouse Theatre. Ordinary Darkness at Hen and Chickens – all for Shaky Isles; and The Seduction of Ms Sarah Hart (Caron Pascoe) at The Oval for Kindred Spirits.[ citation needed ]
On screen, she appeared in a 1997 episode of ITV police procedural series The Bill [11] the 2001 movie Absolution. [12]
She also wrote and presented a documentary in 2008 for the BBC's Time Shift strand called How to Write a Mills and Boon. [13]
Duffy was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the arts. [14]
On 18 April 2015, Duffy spoke at one of the early meetings of a new political party, the Women's Equality Party. [15]
Duffy is the founder and co-director of the Fun Palaces campaign.[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ]
Duffy is a practising Buddhist and as of 2010 [update] lived in Lambeth with her wife, playwright Shelley Silas. [16]
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(August 2022) |
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park,, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.
Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.
Six Characters in Search of an Author is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners, it premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!") and "Incommensurabile!", a reaction to the play's illogical progression. Reception improved at subsequent performances, especially after Pirandello provided for the play's third edition, published in 1925, a foreword clarifying its structure and ideas.
Minette Caroline Mary Walters DL is an English crime writer.
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Caroline (CJ) Carver was born and brought up in the UK before moving to Australia where she lived for ten years. She worked in publishing as a book rep and marketing manager for Transworld Publishers, and when she took time off, it was to backpack through South-East Asia. Carver has been a travel writer and long-distance rally driver, driving from London to Saigon, London to Cape Town and covering 14,000 miles on the Inca Trail. Carver is a founding judge of the Women's World Car of The Year Award.
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Simon Alexander Farquhar is a British writer and broadcaster.
Prime Resident is a play by Stella Duffy, first performed in 2006 as part of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain's Summer Sextet, marking the company's 50th anniversary. The sextet cycled though each of the decades the NYT has been in Britain's theatre, culminating with Prime Resident, set in 2009.
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