'Life and Loves of a She-Devil' author Fay Weldon passes away at 91

Picture Courtesy/Georgina Capel Assoc`s Twitter account

British author Fay Weldon, best known for her write-ups like 'The Life and Loves of a She-Devil' and 'The Cloning of Joanna May,' has passed away aged 91.

On Wednesday, Weldon's agent tweeted a family statement, which read, "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fay Weldon (CBE), author, essayist and playwright. She died peacefully this morning 4th January 2023." The cause of her death was not revealed.

According to Variety, a US-based news outlet, numerous cinematic adaptations of Weldon's books have been created. Both 'She-Devil', a 1989 Golden Globe-nominated film starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr, and the 1986 multi-BAFTA-winning BBC television series of the same name were adapted from the 1983 novel 'The Life and Loves of a She-Devil', about a woman who loses her husband to a romance novelist and goes to great lengths to make their lives miserable.

Another popular Weldon adaptation was the 1992 television series Granada Television's adaption of Patricia Hodge and Brian Cox's science fiction novel 'The Cloning of Joanna May' (1989). Weldon also penned episodes of the well-known sitcom 'Upstairs, Downstairs', including the pilot episode for which she received the Writers' Guild Award for an outstanding TV script.

Her debut book, 'The Fat Woman's Joke', was released in 1967, and her books 'Praxis' (1979) and 'Worst Fears' (1996) were both shortlisted for the Booker and Whitbread literature prizes.

In tribute, the Booker Prize handle tweeted: "We are saddened to hear that the brilliant Fay Weldon has died. As well as being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1979, she was a judge in 1983 and delivered one of the most memorable speeches in Booker history. Our thoughts are with her family and friends."

Weldon produced almost 30 novels along with a number of television scripts. She received the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award (1996) for "Wicked Women," the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize (1989) for "The Heart of the Country," and the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001. (CBE).

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