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Maureen Duffy

The Knitting Circle: Literature

Biography,work.

British writer, poet, and playwright.

She is best known as a novelist.

Acclaimed as Britain's first lesbian to come out publicly.

She was brought up in the East End of London. Her father walked out of the family when she was just two months old. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Maureen Duffy was 14 years old.

Maureen Duffy first had poetry published when she was 16.

She studied at King's College, London. During her final year she got married and went to Italy to teach English. Ten years later, at the age of 28, her marriage ended and she began to regard herself as a lesbian.

Her first novelThat's how it was, (1962) is an autobiographical story of working-class life and lesbian love in the Second World War. She gave up teaching when she was commissioned by Granada Television to write a screenplay.

Another of her groundbreaking novels wasThe Microcosm, (1962). This used the lesbian club Gateways as a background.

She spoke up during the debates on homosexual law reform in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. InLate Night Line-Upshe discussed the BBC2 television documentaryMan Aliveabout the1967 Sexual Offences Actthat was broadcast during the month that it became law.

Her playOne Goodnightwhich was broadcast on BBC radio in 1981 covers the relationship betweenEdith Somerville(1858-1949) andViolet Martin(1862-1915) who were Irish writers. The subject was dealt with again by Maureen Duffy in her radio playThe Irish Cousins: On the Hunt for Somerville and Rosswhich was broadcast on BBC radio in 1986.

• The following poems are re-published byStephen Coote, (1983).

  • Evensong, page 351.
  • Sonnet, pages 351-2.

• Josie, 1961, a television play in the BBC seriesThe Younger Generation.

• That's How It Was, 1962, a novel based on her childhood and the death of her mother.
  1983, Virago Press, 221 pages, ISBN 0860682919 (paperback)

• The Microcosm, 1966, a novel.

• The Paradox Players, 1967, a novel which deals with homosexuality.

• Rites, 1969, a play based on Greek myths.

• Wounds, 1969, a novel which deals with homosexuality.

• Solo, 1970, a play based on Greek myths.

• Old Tyme, 1970, a play based on Greek myths.

• The Venus Touch, 1971, poetry.

• The Erotic World of Faery, 1972, a Freudian study.

• A Nightingale in Bloomsbury Square, 1974, a play aboutVirginia Woolf.

• Capital, 1975, a novel which deals with homosexuality.

• Evensong, 1976, poetry.

• The Passionate Shepherdess, 1977, a biography of Afra or Aphra Behn née Johnson (1640-89).
  The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn, 1640-89, 1989, Methuen, ISBN 0413176509 (paperback)

• Memorials of the Quick and the Dead, 1979, poetry.

• Gor Saga, 1981, a novel.
  Reflects concern about animal rights. Dramatised for television in 1988 asFirst Born, Illuminations

• One Goodnight, 1981, a BBC radio play aboutEdith Somerville and Martin Ross (Violet Martin).

• Londoners, 1983, a novel which deals with homosexuality.

• The Irish Cousins: On the Hunt for Somerville and Ross, 1986, a BBC radio play aboutEdith Somerville and Martin Ross (Violet Martin).

• Change, 1987, London: Methuen, ISBN 041357640X (hardcover)

• Five PlayswithAphra Behn, 1990, Methuen, 416 pages, ISBN 041317090X (paperback)

• Duffy Omnibus, compiled byDan Kavanagh, 1991, Penguin Books, 752 pages, ISBN 0140158243 (paperback)

• Illuminations: A Fable, 1992, Sinclair/Stevenson, ISBN 1856190617 (hardcover)

• Man of Blood, 1993, Dales (Large Print), ISBN 1853894214 (paperback)

• Rook-shoot, 1993, Dales (Large Print), ISBN 1853893994 (paperback)

• Gallows Bird, 1994, Dales (Large Print), ISBN 1853894206 (paperback)

• Love Child, 1994, Virago Press, 224 pages, ISBN 1853817430 (paperback)

• Henry Purcell (1659-1695), 1995, Fourth Estate, 320 pages, ISBN 1857023684 (paperback)

• Restitution, 1998, Fourth Estate, 247 pages, ISBN 1857024664 (hardcover)/1857026667 (paperback)
  Short review by Trevor Lewis inThe Sunday Times Books, 11th. April, 1999, page 14. "e;Identity, heritage, memories, love and the past: these are the things that time steals away in Duffy's novel, restoring them - or at least some of them - 50 years on. Betony Falk, a young woman looking for clues about her dead father, gets no help from the grandmother who shares her name. It comes instead from her new flatmate Gill, a gay black dancer whose own life is obliquely connected to hers, just as hers is entwined with that of a nonagenarian Berlin widower, Anton Falk: ties of lies, blood, guilt and sympathy. Carefully, if a little over-conveniently plotted, the novel has a thoughtful mien and strong emotional reserves to sustain it."e;

Biography,work.

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 1st. April, 1999

Last altered 29th. November, 2006