After hard times and odd jobs as a lone parent, Fay Weldon became one of the top advertising copywriters of her generation. She moved to TV drama (writing the pilot episode of the iconic series Upstairs Downstairs) then turned to novels – including the classic The Life and Loves of a She Devil and The Cloning of Joanna May. She was made a CBE for services to literature and was a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
Genres: Historical, General Fiction
Series
Love & Inheritance
1. Habits of the House (2012)
2. Long Live the King (2013)
3. The New Countess (2013)
1. Habits of the House (2012)
2. Long Live the King (2013)
3. The New Countess (2013)
Novels
The Fat Woman's Joke (1968)
aka ... And the Wife Ran Away
Down Among the Women (1971)
Female Friends (1974)
Little Sisters (1974)
aka Words of Advice
Remember Me (1976)
Praxis (1978)
Puffball (1980)
The President's Child (1982)
The Heart of the Country (1986)
The Shrapnel Academy (1986)
The Hearts and Lives of Men (1987)
Leader of the Band (1988)
The Cloning of Joanna May (1989)
Darcy's Utopia (1990)
Growing Rich (1992)
Life Force (1992)
Question of Timing (1992)
Affliction (1993)
aka Trouble
Splitting (1995)
Worst Fears (1996)
Big Women (1997)
aka Big Girls Don't Cry
Rhode Island Blues (2000)
The Bulgari Connection (2001)
Mantrapped (2004)
She May Not Leave (2005)
The Spa Decameron (2007)
aka The Spa
The Stepmother's Diary (2008)
Chalcot Crescent (2009)
Kehua! (2010)
aka ... And the Wife Ran Away
Down Among the Women (1971)
Female Friends (1974)
Little Sisters (1974)
aka Words of Advice
Remember Me (1976)
Praxis (1978)
Puffball (1980)
The President's Child (1982)
The Heart of the Country (1986)
The Shrapnel Academy (1986)
The Hearts and Lives of Men (1987)
Leader of the Band (1988)
The Cloning of Joanna May (1989)
Darcy's Utopia (1990)
Growing Rich (1992)
Life Force (1992)
Question of Timing (1992)
Affliction (1993)
aka Trouble
Splitting (1995)
Worst Fears (1996)
Big Women (1997)
aka Big Girls Don't Cry
Rhode Island Blues (2000)
The Bulgari Connection (2001)
Mantrapped (2004)
She May Not Leave (2005)
The Spa Decameron (2007)
aka The Spa
The Stepmother's Diary (2008)
Chalcot Crescent (2009)
Kehua! (2010)
Omnibus
The Collected Novels Volume One (2018)
The Collected Novels Volume Two (2018)
The Collected Novels Volume Three (2018)
The Collected Novels Volume Two (2018)
The Collected Novels Volume Three (2018)
Collections
Watching Me, Watching You (1981)
Polaris (1985)
Moon Over Minneapolis (1991)
Angel, All Innocence (1995)
Wicked Women (1995)
A Hard Time to Be a Father (1998)
Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide (2002)
Poolside (2007) (with Alice Adams, Amy Bloom, John Cheever, Ernest Hemingway, A M Homes, Andrea Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Julie Orringer, James Purdy, Graham Swift, John Updike and David Foster Wallace)
Great Escapes (2008) (with Amanda Craig, Virginia Ironside, Kathy Lette, Deborah Moggach, Kate Mosse, Lesley Pearse, Rose Tremain, Jane Elizabeth Varley and Isabel Wolff)
Mischief (2015)
Polaris (1985)
Moon Over Minneapolis (1991)
Angel, All Innocence (1995)
Wicked Women (1995)
A Hard Time to Be a Father (1998)
Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide (2002)
Poolside (2007) (with Alice Adams, Amy Bloom, John Cheever, Ernest Hemingway, A M Homes, Andrea Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Julie Orringer, James Purdy, Graham Swift, John Updike and David Foster Wallace)
Great Escapes (2008) (with Amanda Craig, Virginia Ironside, Kathy Lette, Deborah Moggach, Kate Mosse, Lesley Pearse, Rose Tremain, Jane Elizabeth Varley and Isabel Wolff)
Mischief (2015)
Chapbooks
The Rules of Life (1987)
Wolf the Mechanical Dog (1988)
The Roots of Violence (1989)
Party Puddle (1989)
Wolf the Mechanical Dog (1988)
The Roots of Violence (1989)
Party Puddle (1989)
Novellas
Non fiction
Letters to Alice (1984)
Rebecca West (1985)
Sacred Cows (1989)
Godless in Eden (1999)
Auto Da Fay (2002)
What Makes Women Happy (2006)
Why Will No-One Publish My Novel? (2018)
Rebecca West (1985)
Sacred Cows (1989)
Godless in Eden (1999)
Auto Da Fay (2002)
What Makes Women Happy (2006)
Why Will No-One Publish My Novel? (2018)
Anthologies containing stories by Fay Weldon
The 4th Bumper Book of Ghost Stories (1980)
The Literary Ghost (1991)
The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women (1995)
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996)
Mistresses of the Dark (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
Crossing the Border (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (2000)
The Literary Ghost (1991)
The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women (1995)
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996)
Mistresses of the Dark (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
Crossing the Border (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (2000)
Short stories
Angel, All Innocence [short story] (1977) | |||
Spirit of the House (1980) | |||
Watching Me, Watching You [short story] (1981) | |||
Down the Clinical Disco (1985) | |||
A Good Sound Marriage (1991) |
Awards
|
Fay Weldon recommends

The Survivors (1982)
Elaine Feinstein
"Elaine Feinstein writes with the grace of a born poet and the energy of a natural novelist."

Tongues of Flame (1985)
Tim Parks
"Religion, sex and mania bursting hoof-footed from surburban doors."

Bubbles Unbound (2001)
(Bubbles Yablonsky, book 1)
Sarah Strohmeyer
"A wonderfully energising and skilful page-turner of a book."

The Memory Stones (2003)
Kate O'Riordan
"She has the capacity to tell it how it is, not how we think it ought to be, and to tell it passionately."

Peyton Amberg (2003)
Tama Janowitz
"It is one of the funniest books I have read, and the bleakest... raw, rude, upsetting and immensely invigorating."

The Marlowe Papers (2012)
Ros Barber
"Terrifically accomplished and enjoyable. It restores one's faith in English fiction."

The Things You Do for Love (2016)
Rachel Crowther
"A wonderful page-turner of a novel about the complexity of female life."

The Space Between the Stars (2017)
Anne Corlett
"An original thinker and a very, very effective writer."

The Island Child (2020)
Molly Aitken
"The Island Child is the story of a mother's relationship with a misbegotten daughter, sensitively and subtly told."

The Water Garden (2021)
Louise Soraya Black
"Beautifully written and very English in its landscape-love, family-love and garden-love."
Visitors also looked at these authors