Penelope Gilliatt
Penelope Gilliatt was born on the 25th of March 1932 in London. Her parents were Cyril Conner and Marie Stephanie Douglass, both hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne. They divorced shortly after her birth. She grew up in Northumberland during an upper-middle class upbringing. Her father left his legal practice to become director of the BBC in the north east from 1938 to 1941. This period shaped a lifelong love for the Roman Wall country. She attended Queen's College in London before earning a scholarship to Bennington College in Vermont.
Gilliatt began writing film reviews for The Observer between 1961 and 1967. In 1967 she started a column at The New Yorker magazine. She alternated with Pauline Kael every six months as chief film critic. Her column ran from late spring to early fall while Kael covered the rest of the year. Readers found her style grandiose yet detailed. She described scenes from films with visual metaphors and imagery. Many appreciated her colorful writing while others felt it distracted from criticism. She prided herself on knowing actors personally and wove these acquaintances into her reviews.
Her career ended in 1979 following a controversy over unattributed passages. A profile about Graham Greene contained text taken from Michael Meshaw's piece in The Nation two years prior. Fact-checker warned editor William Shawn but he published the article anyway. Greene called the work inaccurate and the product of wild imagination. Gilliatt stopped writing regular film criticism after this event. She continued publishing fiction in the magazine despite losing her critical voice. The incident marked the end of her tenure as a primary film reviewer.
Gilliatt collaborated on the screenplay for Sunday Bloody Sunday released in 1971. Director John Schlesinger approached her partly due to her debut novel One by One. She wrote the first draft before leaving to take a job at The New Yorker. David Sherwin and John Schlesinger extensively revised the script during her absence. The film received several Best Screenplay awards including from the Writers Guild of America. It was also nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. This recognition highlighted her talent beyond mere observation of cinema.
Mortal Matters published in 1983 focused heavily on shipbuilding and suffragettes. The story is largely set in Northumberland and Newcastle with pages devoted to Hexham. Numerous mentions of Newcastle locations appear throughout the text. She celebrates achievements of the North East including vessels like Mauretania and Charles Parsons' Turbinia. Gilliatt praises the Torrens, a Sunderland-built ship where Joseph Conrad served from 1891. Her fiction often returned to these industrial roots and regional pride.
She married neurologist Roger Gilliatt in 1954. He served as best man for Anthony Armstrong-Jones's wedding to Princess Margaret in 1960. She kept his name after their divorce. From 1963 to 1968 she was married to playwright John Osborne. They lived at 31 Chester Square in central London designed by Sir Hugh Casson. Their daughter Nolan was born but later disowned by Osborne. Following her divorce she had relationships with Mike Nichols and Edmund Wilson. Vincent Canby accompanied her for many years until her death from alcoholism in 1993.
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Common questions
When was Penelope Gilliatt born and where did she grow up?
Penelope Gilliatt was born on the 25th of March 1932 in London. She grew up in Northumberland during an upper-middle class upbringing.
What years did Penelope Gilliatt write film reviews for The Observer and The New Yorker?
Gilliatt began writing film reviews for The Observer between 1961 and 1967. In 1967 she started a column at The New Yorker magazine that ran from late spring to early fall while Pauline Kael covered the rest of the year.
Why did Penelope Gilliatt stop writing regular film criticism after 1979?
Her career ended in 1979 following a controversy over unattributed passages taken from Michael Meshaw's piece in The Nation two years prior. Fact-checker warned editor William Shawn but he published the article anyway which marked the end of her tenure as a primary film reviewer.
Which screenplay did Penelope Gilliatt collaborate on with John Schlesinger and when was it released?
Gilliatt collaborated on the screenplay for Sunday Bloody Sunday released in 1971. The film received several Best Screenplay awards including from the Writers Guild of America and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA.
Where is the novel Mortal Matters by Penelope Gilliatt set and what does it focus on?
Mortal Matters published in 1983 focused heavily on shipbuilding and suffragettes. The story is largely set in Northumberland and Newcastle with pages devoted to Hexham and numerous mentions of Newcastle locations throughout the text.
Who were the spouses of Penelope Gilliatt and when did she die?
She married neurologist Roger Gilliatt in 1954 and from 1963 to 1968 she was married to playwright John Osborne. Vincent Canby accompanied her until her death from alcoholism in 1993.