Biographies: Penelope Fitzgerald - Writer

Biographies

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A British poet and writer, born in Lincoln, England. She is considered one of the first female students at Oxford University. Her uncle was theologian and crime writer Ronald Knox. She completed her studies at Wycombe Abbey School, an independent girls' boarding school, and Somerville College, Oxford University. After graduating in 1938, she was named Woman of the Year by the student magazine Isis. During World War II, she worked for the BBC, and in the early 1950s, she and her husband lived in Hampstead, London, where they co-edited a magazine named World Review. The Times listed her as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The film The Bookshop (2017) was based on her novel, as well as her novels Human Voices and The Beginning of Spring, and in 2012, The Observer newspaper named her last novel, The Blue Rose, one of the “Ten Best Historical Novels.” She died on April 28, 2000, in London, at the age of 84.

• 12 May 2024
• Salma El-Sharkawy