Nell Dunn

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

Biography

Early years

The daughter of Sir Philip Dunn, she was born in London and educated at a convent, which she left at the age of fourteen. Although she came from an upper-class background, in 1959 she 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.

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

• Up the Junction 1963
• Poor Cow 1967
• Tear His Head Off His Shoulders 1974
• The Only Child 1978
• Grandmothers 1991
• My Silver Shoes 1996

Plays

• I Want, 1976
• Steaming, 1981
• Variety Night, 1982
• The Little Heroine, 1988
• Consequences, 1988
• Babe XXX, 1998
• Cancer Tales, 2003
• Home Death 2011

Film script

• Poor Cow (co-written with Ken Loach)^[1]
• Every Breath You Take 1987
• Sisters, 1994

References

• Sebastian Groes (21 October 2007). "Nell Dunn". The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 
• Nell Dunn, doollee

External links

• Nell Dunn at Doollee.com
• Nell Dunn at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Nell Dunn at the Internet Movie Database
• Nell Dunn – from Chelsea to Battersea