Elaine Morgan: A Life Behind the Screen by Daryl Leeworthy (English) Paperback B

Elaine Morgan

by Daryl Leeworthy

Left wing, working class radical Elaine Morgan was a trailblazing woman writer, especially in tv writing where her credits included Lloyd George. She also wrote about feminism and anthropology, with The Descent of Woman and The Aquatic Ape. This new biography celebrates her achievements and looks at the person behind the writing on her centenary.

FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New

Publisher Description

Published to celebrate Elaine Morgan's centenary, this informative biography restores Morgan's reputation and establishes her significant place in writing from Wales. It outlines her early days living only just above the poverty line in the Rhondda in a Labour/Communist steeped family, before reading English Literature at Oxford.The book details Morgan's early career in (left-wing) adult education, her marriage to an International Brigade veteran, her continuing political engagement and her success as a writer of stories and journalism. This brought her to screenwriting and adaptations for tv, and in particular the BBC. In this her career ran in parallel with fellow Rhondda author Gwyn Thomas, and Leeworthy traces their rise and the reasons behind it.Morgan went from being among the very first women writers for radio and television to one of the pre-eminent screenplay writers in the UK. She was truly a pioneer, on whose shoulders today's female television writers stand. She is perhaps best known for her adaptation of How Green Was My Valley, and her original screenplay, Lloyd George. Morgan spent forty years screenwriting before a radical move into anthropology and ethics, with Descent of Woman and The Aquatic Ape. These books made her even more famous and more influential, and she spoke about them at conferences around the world.Despite her enormous international reputation Morgan was essentially a Valleys person and the book explores the importance of Welsh identity to her. She was an early campaigner for Welsh language education, and became a Western Mail columnist towards the end of her life, a commentator on Welsh affairs, both political and social.Richly detailed, with never before seen photographs, this biography is essential in understanding the life and work of this important writer.

Author Biography

Daryl Leeworthy is a historian and biographer. He is the author of six books including lives of television screenwriter Elaine Morgan and novelist and playwright Gwyn Thomas, the pioneering 'A Little Gay History of Wales' and several studies in the history of Welsh social democracy.

Review Text

The life of Elaine Morgan spanned almost the whole of the twentieth century, and although she left no real archive of her papers, it would seem that manifold printed, newspaper and archival sources exist, all quarried with care by the author, Daryl Leeworthy who has succeeded in welding the fruit of his research into a cohesive, compelling account.Every important aspect of Elaines life is covered here concisely and with conviction. We read of the bright working-class girl who spent her childhood in relative poverty. Against all the odds, she succeeded, on the eve of the Second World War, in winning a scholarship to read English Literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Within weeks, her life was shattered when her father Billy died of heart failure aged 48.Bravely, she immersed herself in left-wing student politics and various literary pursuits and forming a rich array of friendships and links which were to stand her in good stead for the rest of her life. Particular attention is lavished here on her close relationship with Drummond Allison, a fellow student with whom she fell in love and whom she was later to describe as a life-enhancer. His death on active service in Italy in December 1943 aged 22 left her bereft and exposed once again.By the time of Allisons death, Elaine had graduated and recently secured her first position as a tutor-organiser for the the Workers Educational Association in Norfolk where her specialism was contemporary affairs. But she also returned regularly to the family home at Pontypridd. During one of these visits she met ex-serviceman Morien Waldo Parry Morgan, a kindred spirit in so many ways, and the man who became her husband in April 1945. The accident of employment then took them to Burnley in Lancashire.Two children, Dylan and Gareth, soon followed, and Elaine''s life there was frenetically busy as she became involved in an array of public activities, among them the WEA, the United Nations Association and the Communist Party, a role which curiously she herself felt inclined to play down in her later life. It was at this time too, asserts Leeworthy, that she began to embrace the feminist credentials. A mainstay of her life was the columns on current and political affairs which she penned regularly for local newspapers like the Burnley Express from which a few revealing, indeed riveting columns are re-printed here.It was the onset of asthma in their two sons which propelled a return to south Wales in 1949. They were to settle first at a remote farmhouse near Hay-on-Wye, and it was here that Elaine launched her career as a professional writer, initially as a scriptwriter for the BBC, then as a short story writer, eventually as a dramatist who authored full length plays. Leeworthy juggles his account of her professional activities with her maternal longing for a third child, a preoccupation which caused a rift in the Morgan marriage which was resolved only when the couple resolved to adopt another son. Elaine Morgans golden age as a first-rate professional writer now dawned as she penned a contentious semi-biographical play entitled A Matter of Degree , based on Oxford University experiences, which received a highly mixed reception and caused much discomfiture for its author. But she persevered, the commissions flowed in and the healthy bank balance prospered. Television work was unfailingly lucrative. As is well known, Elaine reached the pinnacle of her script-writing success with her re-working of How Green Was My Valley in 197576, her adaptation of Vera Brittains Testament of Youth in 1979, and the scripting of the series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George in 1981. More factual documentaries then followed in the second half of the 1980s.As Elaine approached her 70th year, another new dawn arose with the publication of tomes on anthropological themes, like the best selling The Descent of Woman (1972), drafted partly as an aggrieved womans reaction to Desmond Morris The Naked Ape published five years earlier. Although its author was certainly no zoologist, the book made a massive impact on both sides of the Atlantic, rapidly forging an identity for the ageing Elaine Morgan as a hero of feminist radicalism, and closely linking her with the nascent Green movement. Television series and other full-length monographs on similar themes followed as their author adorned an array of public events.A final achievement came in old age with the penning of a weekly column entitled The Pensioner which appeared in the Western Mail regularly, tackling many varied subjects with verve and conviction, and bringing the elderly columnist a wholly novel fan base until within just a few years of her death. Cruel fate, however, had yet again intervened her elder son Dylan died prematurely in middle age.A useful select listing of Elaine Morgan''s more important publications and broadcasts adds value to this worthwhile study.J. Graham Jones It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from , with the permission of the Books Council of Wales.Gellir defnyddior adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar , trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.

Author Comments

Daryl Leeworthy is a former lecturer in community history at the University of Huddersfield and at Swansea University. He is the author of 'Labour Country', 'A Little Queer Book of Wales', and a forthcoming biography of Gwyn Thomas.

Details ISBN1781726043 Author Daryl Leeworthy Pages 220 Publisher Poetry Wales Press Year 2020 ISBN-10 1781726043 ISBN-13 9781781726044 Publication Date 2020-11-02 Language English Format Paperback DEWEY 808.225092 UK Release Date 2020-11-02 Imprint Seren Place of Publication Bridgend Country of Publication United Kingdom AU Release Date 2020-11-02 NZ Release Date 2020-11-02 Illustrations Up to 10 B&W Subtitle A Life Behind the Screen Audience General

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TheNile_Item_ID:136672221;

• Condition: Brand new
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 9781781726044
• Author: Daryl Leeworthy
• Book Title: Elaine Morgan

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