Fay Weldon: A Pioneering Feminist Writer

January 6, 2023

Fay Weldon was an English author, essayist, and playwright known for her work as a self-declared feminist. Throughout her 55-year career, she published 31 novels, including “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil,” which was televised by the BBC in 1986.

Early Life

Weldon was born Franklin Birkinshaw in Birmingham, England, on September 22, 1931. Her family had a literary background, with her maternal grandfather, uncle, and mother all publishing novels. Weldon and her sister Jane spent their summers with their father in New Zealand, where he worked as a doctor. In 1936, when Weldon was five, her parents separated and later divorced in 1940. Weldon attended Christchurch Girls’ High School before returning to England with her mother and sister in 1946.

In England, Weldon won a scholarship to South Hampstead High School, an all-girls school, before going on to study psychology and economics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She completed her Master of Arts in 1952 and moved to London, where she worked as a clerk at the Foreign Office.

Early Career

After leaving the Foreign Office, Weldon took temporary jobs as a waitress and hospital ward orderly before working at Crawford’s Advertising Agency. There, she worked with the writer Elizabeth Smart and was eventually promoted to head of copywriting at Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. While working in advertising, Weldon created the slogan “Go to work on an egg” and “Vodka gets you drunker quicker.”

Writing Career

Weldon began her writing career in the late 1960s with the publication of her first novel, “The Fat Woman’s Joke.” She continued to write and publish throughout the following decades, producing a total of 31 novels, including “Puffball,” “The Cloning of Joanna May,” “Wicked Women,” and “The Bulgari Connection.”

Feminism in Weldon’s Work

Weldon was a self-declared feminist and her work often featured “overweight, plain women” as the heroines. In an unpublished article for the Daily Mail, she wrote about how her own experiences as an “overweight, plain” woman influenced her writing and led her to become a feminist. She believed that there were many reasons for women to be feminists, including the lack of equal opportunities and the myth that women were supported by male relatives.

Legacy

Fay Weldon passed away on January 4, 2023, leaving behind a legacy as a pioneering feminist writer. Throughout her career, she published 31 novels and was known for her work featuring “overweight, plain women” and for her self-declared feminism.

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